Mohan Thakur and Ram Shroff were the two new faces that were elected to the nine-member RWITC committee during the elections held at the turf club lawns in Mumbai on Thursday evening.

Vivek Jain once again topped the voting charts of the Royal Western India Turf Club (RWITC) annual general election for the fifth time in last six years. He garnered 790 of the 992 valid votes. The total vote count was 999, of which seven votes were declared invalid.

"Work speaks for itself," said Vivek Jain after the results that saw his father, Dr S C Jain, polling the second highest number of votes (658).

There were 11 candidates in the fray, which included eight from the outgoing committee who offered themselves for re-election. Khushroo Dhunjibhoy, formerly chairman of the club for a five-year stretch between 2000-05, was the only one who had opted out of the race.

The election was widely perceived as a three-candidate fight for the lone seat vacated by Dhunjibhoy, but the results had some surprises in store. Captain Jamshed Appoo failed to retain his seat, while Dr Cyrus Poonawalla, chairman of the club for the last three years, saw some erosion in his base when he finished fifth in the overall votes' tally by polling 637 votes. Jaydev Mody and Shyam Ruia finished with 657 and 650 votes to take the third and fourth spots.

In a separate election, Zavaray S Poonawalla and Kumar Dalal got re-elected to the Board Of Appeal.