Ludhiana: Ahead of polls, rifts come to fore in United Cycle Parts Manufacturers Association

LUDHIANA: With just about a month to go for the elections of the United Cycle Parts Manufacturers Association (UCPMA), different groups have started making moves for staking their claims on the association during the next tenure already.
With these attempts, tussles have also ensued between different groups to outdo each other to woo the members and, as a result, friction between the present managing committee members who owe allegiance to different groups has also started coming to the fore.
The tenure of the present managing committee is coming to end on September 6 and it’s likely that the elections of UCPMA might be held in first week of September.
In the recent incident, a directory of the members of UCPMA was released amid fanfare at a city-based hotel, but to everyone’s disappointment, the most prominent office bearer of the association, president D S Chawla was and secretary Harsimerjit Singh Lucky were conspicuous with their absence.
However, all the different power centres, old rivals and even former presidents were present in this function that saw presence of six current office-bearers of the association.
Neither Chawla nor Manjinder Singh Sachdeva, general secretary of UCPMA (who attended the directory launch function) could be contacted for their response.
Speaking to TOI on condition of anonymity, a prominent member of UCPMA, who is former office-bearer said current president D S Chawla will contest the elections again while Kular and Vishiwkarma group, who until now were arch rivals, will field joint candidate for the post of the president. However, no one is ready yet to open his cards for the elections but groundwork to garner support from members, politicians and prominent businessmen has already been started by the different groups.
Why UCPMA and its president are important
UCPMA, which is the biggest body representing the bicycle industry, comprises more than 2,000 members. The elected office-bearers of this association, president in particular, holds quite an influence in the administrative and political circles and across all departments. This is largely because of both ruling and opposition parties in the state give importance to UCPMA , due to prominent factory owners being members of this association and the number of votes the association has influence over. Besides this, be it any social, political or other cause, the services of UCPMA are required from time to time — some departments use UCPMA platform to launch schemes and camps for industry like the recent camps that vaccinated city residents en masse.