Sirajuddin Qureshi, a prominent Indian entrepreneur and social worker, won the keenly-contested presidential election of the New Delhi-based India Islamic Cultural Center (IICC), a premier Islamic organization whose construction was partly funded by Saudi Arabia.

More than 100 IICC members, who have been living and working in the Kingdom, voted for Qureshi through postal ballot.

“All members of the rival panel led by Shakeel-uz-Zaman Ansari, a member of the National Commission for Backward Castes, were defeated,” a jubilant Qureshi said over phone from New Delhi Tuesday. He thanked the IICC members working in the Kingdom for their votes and support. The center has only 3,000 distinguished members currently living or working in different countries including India.

Saudi Arabia had partly funded construction of the IICC within the framework of a memorandum of understanding signed between the Saudi Embassy in New Delhi and the IICC in 2007. Asked about his future plans as IICC president, Qureshi said the center, with a mandate to provide a platform for promoting Islamic heritage and inter-faith harmony, was planning to open regional chapters across India to give greater wingspan to its activities.

“The center also intends to work closely with Saudi institutions on Islamic and cultural projects,” he said, adding: “Resuming civil service coaching classes for Muslim youth, launching vocational courses and opening up the center’s branches in six states across India are among our priorities.”

The IICC President Qureshi said he had given his “blood to the institution for 22 years, when no other person, including Indian politicians, bothered about it.”

Asked if the IICC had plans to launch or promote any major education project, Qureshi said the center was planning to establish a university for which they had already acquired 300 acres of land. “This ambitious project is being promoted by me personally from my trust, but we can link it with the IICC,” he said.

Murshid Kamal, chief of the IICC Riyadh chapter, congratulated Qureshi and his panel on their re-election. The IICC members in cooperation with some prominent Indian expatriates in Riyadh would organize a felicitation function for Qureshi and his team in the Saudi capital next month, he said.