Same stadium, same match, same rivals and same result — union minister of state for commerce and industries Jyotiraditya Scindia was reelected president of the Madhya Pradesh Cricket Association (MPCA) on Sunday.
He delivered a knockout punch to state industries minister Kailash Vijayvargiya – second time in a row – the only difference between the 2010 and 2012 contests being a bigger margin. In the elections held at Holkar Stadium here on Sunday night, Scindia – who has been MPCA president since 2006 – got 150 votes of the 232 polled, while Vijayvargiya could only manage 73.
In the last elections two years back, Scindia had got 142 against Vijayvargiya’s 72. The Scindia panel also made a clean sweep by bagging all the office-bearer positions as well as managing committee berths. The MP minister’s panel failed to get even a single seat. MK Bhargava was elected chairman, while Narendra Menon was elected as secretary.
The three elected vice-presidents were Bhagwan Das Suthar, Captain Manmohan Sharma and Dr Bharat Chhaparwal. The new joint secretaries are Alpesh Shah and Milind Kanmadikar, while Praveen Kasliwal is the new treasurer. The results were made official at around midnight. The polling had ended at around 5.30 pm and the counting had started half an hour later.
{{/usCountry}}The three elected vice-presidents were Bhagwan Das Suthar, Captain Manmohan Sharma and Dr Bharat Chhaparwal. The new joint secretaries are Alpesh Shah and Milind Kanmadikar, while Praveen Kasliwal is the new treasurer. The results were made official at around midnight. The polling had ended at around 5.30 pm and the counting had started half an hour later.
{{/usCountry}}Later talking to the media, Vijayvargiya said that he had congratulated Scindia and called for sportsmanship from his side. “I have assured him of all my support,” he said. The biennial elections to MPCA, the state’s richest sports body, turned out to be an intense contest as the controversial Vijayvargiya threw his hat in the ring against Scindia for the second time around.
There were talks of compromise and consensus, but the Scindia camp, confident of victory, steadfastly refused to come to a settlement and preferred an election. The results have vindicated the union minister’s conviction. There was tight security both inside and outside the stadium and the police had to resort to lathicharge twice to bring the situation under control.