Landslide win for Thackeray and team in MDFA elections

Aditya Thackeray won by the highest number of votes in the recently conducted MDFA (Mumbai District Football Association) Elections for the Executive Council. All the other 26 candidates from the Thackeray-led panel were also successful, winning by a landslide victory. A total of 37 candidates had contested for the 27 Executive Council seats.

A total number of 159 representatives from football clubs, institutions and gymkhanas had cast their votes, out of which five were declared invalid, in the elections which is for a four-year term (1917-18 to 2020-21), at Sharda Mangal Karyalay, Naigaon, Dadar (East) on Saturday.

The Sena leader Thackeray, who was contesting the elections for first time, polled the highest number 147 votes. The panel had already decided that Thackeray would be their Presidential candidate.

In the previous term, Thackeray was co-opted as Chairman of the Association. During his tenure as Chairman, Thackeray made significant contributions to Mumbai football and the development of the sport in the city.

Sudhakar Rane a diligent worker and who has toiled daily around the clock to ensure the smooth functioning and conduct of the matches garnered the second highest number of 138 votes.

The other from the previous committee who were reelected include, Digamber Kandarkar, Souter Vaz, John Almeida, Jacinto D’Silva, Udayan Benerjee, Shodhana Shetty, Vilas Rane, Salim Ansari, Suresh Banjan, Anthony Rodrigues, C.K. Shetty, Henry Picardo, Nasir Hussain, Anoop Dubey, Conrad Pereira, Darryl D’Souza and Krishna Pawle, all who were members of the outgoing committe. Nine new faces were elected to the Executive Council.

The 10 opposing candidates in the fray, included former football Uday Konar (27 votes), ex-MDFA Committee Members Ranvir Singh (24 votes) and Shashank Shah (26 votes).