Chennai: Veteran cricket administrator Jagmohan Dalmiya is all set to return unopposed as BCCI president more than a decade after he last held the top job, emerging as the consensus candidate from incumbent N Srinivasan’s camp.
The road for Dalmiya was cleared after another former president Sharad Pawar failed to get a proposer from east zone, prompting the Maratha strongman to pull out of the race ahead of the much-anticipated and much-delayed Annual General Meeting.
Three vice presidents set to be elected unopposed at the Board’s AGM here on Monday are Andhra’s Gokaraju Gangaraju (south zone), Assam’s Goutam Roy (east) with M L Nehru of Jammu and Kashmir representing the north zone.
Elections will be held for the posts of secretary, joint secretary and treasurer. Incumbent secretary Sanjay Patel, a known Srinivasan loyalist, will be up against Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association’s Anurag Thakur, who will be representing the Pawar group.
Jharkhand State Cricket Association chief Amitabh Choudhary will lock horns with Chetan Desai of Goa for the post of joint secretary, while Haryana Cricket Association boss Anirudh Chaudhry is pitted against current BCCI VP and Uttar Pradesh Cricket Association secretary Rajeev Shukla.
Election for the two remaining vice president’s posts from central and west zone will see Congress MP Jyotiraditya Scindia taking on CK Khanna with Mumbai’s Ravi Sawant facing Baroda’s Samarjit Singh Gaekwad.
It was also learnt that MP Pandove withdrew his nomination for the post of vice president from north zone in favour of Nehru.
The 70-year-old Dalmiya, President of Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB), controls two votes from East Zone and had yesterday emerged as a front-runner for the top post since no other name was unanimously acceptable to all the units loyal to Srinivasan.
Dalmiya’s bid got a boost today after Pawar failed to get any proposer from the East Zone, whose turn it is to nominate the president.
All the six state units from the East Zone owed allegiance to the Srinivasan camp as his loyalists met here on Sunday.
“Since this is the turn of east zone Dalmiya has both the proposer and seconder from east. The nomination was today at 3pm,” BCCI sources told PTI.
Maratha strongman Pawar, who was projected as possible candidate for the president’s post, flew into the city Saturday and was closeted in a meeting with his supporters.
Former BCCI president Shashank Manohar also arrived here for the AGM.
The vice-Presidential candidates from the Pawar camp are Scindia and Sawant.
Dalmiya’s elevation to the position has been necessitated by Srinivasan being forced to stay away from the election owing to a Supreme Court directive. Srinivasan can only vote during Monday’s electoral process.
In fact, the AGM itself has been delayed for a while now owing to the legal battle that Srinivasan is fighting in the top court.
The apex court is currently hearing the IPL spot-fixing scandal in which conflict of interest with regards Srinivasan’s position as BCCI President and IPL team owner has come in for sharp criticism from court. (PTI)
