The eight seats of the nine of Maharashtra Medical Council have been won by the panel of Indian Medical Association. The elections were conducted after a gap of 10 years. The two candidates from Vidarbha who won are Nagpur’s noted sexologist Dr Sanjay Deshpande and Chandrapur’s ENT Surgeon Dr Mangesh Gulwade. Dr Deshpande, who secured 5,804 votes, stood fourth while Dr Mangesh Gulwade got 5,506 votes. All the IMA candidates secured solid votes. There were 60 candidates in the fray for nine seats contesting polls from four panels. The polls were held on April 26 while the counting was held at Mumbai on April 29. Earlier the body remained defunct for several years.

 

The elections were held due to the efforts of late Dr Kishor Taori of Nagpur. After end of his tenure, Dr Shivkumar Utture became Chairman. Maharashtra Medical Council has 17 members. Nine are elected members, ex-officio members, such as the Director of Health Services and the Director of Medical Education and Research, five members nominated by the State Government, with no more than one being a non-practitioner, one member from each University with a medical faculty, elected by that faculty. At present, IMA won the eight seats. If it wants to win the posts of President, then it is difficult for them. Government wants the MMC to be constituted like National Medical Council (NMC) where all the members are nominated by Central Government. It had approached Supreme Court but lost the case and then the elections were held. If Government wants to have its own President, then the battle is difficult for IMA. One member out of elected nine is not from IMA group.

 

Secondly, all the nominated eight members will obviously act at the behest of the Government. These eight members and the elected one becomes nine which can defeat the IMA and get their President and Vice-President elected. The last MMC election was held in December 2016. Upon the completion of its five-year tenure, the State Government dissolved the council, and the elections scheduled for 2022 were postponed. For the past three years, the MMC has been functioning under an administrator- Dr Vinky Rughwani.