MUMBAI: Amid allegations that he had hired a gangster to threaten Sushma Shiromanee into withdrawing her candidature against him, film producer T P Agarwal has been re-elected president of the Indian Motion Pictures Producers’ Association (IMPPA) for the third time.

Agarwal won with a clear margin of 18 votes. Says Agarwal, "My election proves that the members have faith in me. All that my fellow member was doing was to tarnish my image.”

Though Shiromanee won, her team could not achieve a majority. Others from her team who won the election are Shabnam Kapoor, Hetan Desai, Babubhai Thiba and Aruna Irani. “I am not sure if the controversy raging before the election had an effect on my team’s defeat,” sighed Shiromanee.

New office bearers of IMPPA are K C Bokadia ( senior vice president) , Abhay Sinha (senior vice-president) and producer Kumar Mohan (treasurer).