RCA poll process stopped, Joshi to challenge in court

A group of cricket administrators, led by former union minister CP Joshi, has decided to go to court on Monday to challenge the election officer’s decision to stop the election process for the Rajasthan Cricket Association, a day before the last day of nominations, said Rampal Sharma, who filed his nomination papers for the president’s post on April 21.

When hopefuls from 20-22 district associations reached the RCA Academy to file the nominations on Sunday, they were surprised to hear that the election process was stopped. Later, they held an emergency meeting and passed a resolution to challenge the decision in court, as, they said, the election process once started cannot be stopped.

Rajendra Singh Rathore of the Joshi camp said that the election officer’s decision was not communicated to everyone and alleged that it was taken at the behest of former IPL commissioner and RCA president Lalit Modi. Rathore’s charges found reason in a meeting held on Saturday, which was reportedly attended by the election officer AK Pande, RCA deputy president Mahmood Abdi and the Lalit Modi’s advocate.

But Abdi denied it. “It is the election officer’s decision and we have nothing to do with it,” he told HT.

Meanwhile, the Modi faction got a big jolt after Nagaur District Cricket Association (NDCA) secretary Rajendra Singh Nandu deserted the faction and joined the Joshi group. Nadu, who is the RCA executive secretary and associated with Lalit Modi for 12 years, said he left him because he felt ignored. “In six months, Modi never spoke to me for any of the RCA affairs. I don’t like his working style,” said Nandu. He said the NDCA will soon call a meeting to remove Modi as the district president. Sources said Nandu’s anger stems from the Modi faction’s denial of RCA secretary’s post to him.