Sweet revenge: CP Joshi bowls out Lalit Modi faction to 2 posts
RCA POLLS RS Nandu elected secretary of cricket body, Pinkesh Kumar Jain elected treasurer
The results of the Rajasthan Cricket Association (RCA) elections on Friday came as a jolt to former IPL commissioner Lalit Modi, who through his son, Ruchir Modi, has been trying to retain power.
Senior Congress leader CP Joshi won with a 19-14 margin.
It was also a sweet revenge for the senior congressman Joshi, who had to withdraw from the election against Lalit Modi the previous year because he was deserted by his own supporters.
The only consolation for Modi faction was that the post of secretary went to Rajendra Singh Nandu, who is believed to be a staunch supporter of Lalit Modi. He beat Mahendra Sharma 17-16 by cross voting which was also seen on some other posts. “It was a victory of honesty. I will work to bring cricket on track. Our priority is to get BCCI ban removed from RCA,” said Nandu.
Another Modi man, Pinkesh Jain, too came out a winner against Azad Singh with an 18-15 margin for the post of treasurer.
“All 33 votes were valid and countable,” said Justice Gyansudha Mishra, the ombudsman appointed for the RCA elections. Elections officer AK Pandey said, “All 33 districts cast their votes. One voter did not cast vote for the executive committee member, while another vote was cast wrongly.”
The elections were held for six posts and CP Joshi group won on four. Joshi and vice president Mohammed Iqbal received 19 votes each. Joshi had defeated controversial IPL Commissioner and RCA president Lalit Modi in 2009 and now his son Ruchir Modi. “I thank all the RCA members for their support. We will collectively work to bring glory back to cricket in Rajasthan”, said Joshi in a tweet after winning the elections.
The post of vice-president went to Mohammad Iqbal, also a Congress man, who beat Ram Prakash Choudhary 19–14 while Mahendra Nahar, also of Joshi faction, emerged victorious against Shatrughan Tiwari 18–15.
The post of executive member went to K K Nimawat, who got the better of Ramesh Gupta 19–14.
A close aid of Lalit Modi and former RCA deputy president Mahmood Abdi said, “For the first time, the elections were peaceful. Cross voting was there from both factions. We would give our support to the president CP Joshi. We lost today but we will win in the next elections because it is not Kumbh, which comes in 12-year.”
The state cricket is already bearing the brunt of electing Lalit Modi as RCA president in the last election which resulted in the BCCI suspension of the state body. The BCCI had warned that the suspension would continue till Lalit Modi was removed also from the primary bodies of RCA.
Despite that, Lalit Modi hung on to the post of president of Nagaur District Association.