Senior journalist Sangeeta Barooah Pisharoty became the Press Club of India (PCI)’s first woman president on Sunday (December 14) after winning the election to the press body’s top post.
Pisharoty, a distinguished journalist from Northeast India, has also created history by becoming the first journalist from the region to be elected to the prestigious position.
Her team swept all office-bearers and managing committee positions, scoring an emphatic 21-0, in the elections held on Saturday. The counting of votes took place on Sunday.
Pisharoty, elected vice president of the PCI in its 2024 polls and until recently the national affairs editor at The Wire, secured 1,019 votes. Her opponents, Atul Mishra and Arun Sharma, received 129 and 89 votes, respectively.
Afzal Imam was elected as the secretary general of the Club, while Jatin Gandhi emerged victorious as the vice-president. Aditi Rajput (Treasurer) and P R Sunil (Joint Secretary) were elected unopposed.
Outgoing secretary-general Neeraj Thakur said that the election of the PCI’s first woman president “stands as a powerful symbol of progress and a reaffirmation of the Club’s dedication to equality, diversity and democratic values”.
The 16-member managing committee members are Niraj Kumar, Abhishek Kumar Singh, Jahanvi Sen, Ashok Kaushik, Kallol Bhattacharjee, Praveen Jain, Agraj Pratap Singh, Manoj Sharma, Nyanima Basu, P B Suresh, V P Pandey, Prem Bahukhandi, Sneha Bhura, Javed Akhtar, Rezaul Hasan Laskar, and Sunil Kumar.
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In a social media post, journalist and film critic Utpal Borpujari said, “Congratulations, Sangeeta Barooah Pisharoty for creating history by becoming the 1st woman president of Press Club of India in its 68-year history. Also important is that the 1st-ever woman president of PCI is a journalist from Northeast India. It’s quite something that it took nearly 7 decades for the media fraternity, that often pontificates on gender equality, to elect a woman president in the most prominent press club of the country.”
