Irregularities in BSE polls, says candidate

The Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) of a Mumbai-based brokerage has alleged that there were irregularities in the elections conducted by the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) in September 2008 for the post of a trading member-director on its board.

Polls were conducted at BSE for the first time in over five years on September 19 after its trading member-director Balkishan Mohta sought re-election. The complainant, Antique Stock Broking CMD Kirti Doshi, who fought and lost to Mohta, has alleged that BSE was shying away from revealing the vote count since there were irregularities.

“Despite repeated pleas to the BSE board, I have not been given a copy of any official record showing how many votes were cast and how many were in my favour. When I persisted, they orally informed me that Mohta had won by 3 lakh votes and refused to reveal the actual figures,” said Doshi.

As per the Indian Companies Act 1956, under which BSE is registered, an organisation has to reveal the data of actual vote count as well as valid and invalid votes at least to the candidates who fought the election. “I’am confident that I have got over 50 per cent of the approximate 38 lakh votes cast,” said Doshi.

He has also brought the matter to the notice of BSE Brokers Forum, which is likely to take it up with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi).

An email query to BSE remained unanswered. However, talking to Business Standard, BSE non-executive chairman Jagdish Capoor said, “The elections were conducted in a free and fair manner and the independent scrutinizers’ report has also established this fact. The board is ready to meet any one in this regard.”

When contacted Mohta refused to comment on the issue.

According to sources, representatives from Deutsche Borse and Singapore Stock Exchange had cast nearly 8 lakh votes each, while 7-8 lakh votes were cast by domestic stockbrokers. A shareholder’s vote is proportionate to the percentage of share that s/he holds in the exchange.

BSE now has 19 domestic and overseas institutional shareholders, including Life Insurance Corporation, State Bank of India, the AV Birla Group, Deutsche Borse Group and the Singapore Stock Exchange (SGX), besides domestic players.

The BSE’s 12-member board consists of three stockbrokers, eight directors, seven of whom are industry captains, and a government nominee. The brokers are Emkay Share’s designated director Prakash Kacholia, JGA Shah Share Brokers director Siddharth Shah and Mohta.