Rival parties join hands to fight Sandeep Patil-led group in today’s election
MUMBAI BJP, NCP and both camps of Shiv Sena have been trading barbs ever since the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government was toppled a few months ago
MUMBAI BJP, NCP and both camps of Shiv Sena have been trading barbs ever since the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government was toppled a few months ago. However, when it comes to cricket, those differences go for a toss with all of them aligning their interests.
On Monday, city BJP chief Ashish Shelar and NCP supremo Sharad Pawar shared the dais during a voters’ meet, urging them to back the Pawar-Shelar Group for the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) elections to be held on Thursday.
On Tuesday, it was turn of chief minister Eknath Shinde and his deputy Devendra Fadnavis to address the voters. Last week, both had chaired a meeting of the school, college and office clubs—they account for 102 of the 356 eligible voters—at the Sahyadri guest house, asking them to support the group.
Fadnavis’s childhood friend Amol Kale is the group’s candidate for president’s post. Shelar was their original choice but with him becoming the BCCI treasurer, Kale, who was vying to be re-elected as the vice-president, was told to fight for the top job.
Members of both the Shiv Sena factions are also part of their panel. While Uddhav Thackeray’s personal assistant Milind Narvekar is in fray for an Apex Council post, Vihang Sarnaik, younger son of Thane MLA Pratap Sarnaik from the Shinde camp, will be elected unopposed as the chairman of the T20 Mumbai governing council. NCP MLA Jitendra Awhad, a close associate of Pawar, will contest for one of the nine Apex Council posts as well.
Shelar refused to comment on the issue. However, a close aide of Shelar said, “The alliance of political opponents in the ring of MCA is not new. In the backdrop of changed political equations in the state, however, it becomes difficult for leaders to convince people about the political rivals vying as a team.”
An aide of Narvekar said: “We have chosen not to make any public comments. The fact is that you have to keep political differences aside if you want to provide better infrastructure for the sport. Politicians fighting each other for control of sports bodies would not be in the interest of the sports and even those who love the sport would not approve it.”
Pawar and Shelar—both former presidents of the association—share an equation that goes beyond politics and have been calling the shots in the MCA for long now, rubber stamping the candidates who will stand for the elections.
Shelar, who was elected as the vice-president in 2015, became MCA’s interim chief in 2017 following the resignation of then president Pawar. Shelar quit in 2018 after an ad-hoc committee was put in place by the Committee of Administrators to run the daily affairs till a new constitution was put in place.
Previously, Pawar had backed former India batter Sandeep Patil’s candidature for the president’s post and he had started campaigning under the banner of Sharad Pawar Group. At the start of last week, in a sudden twist, Pawar announced his backing for Shelar’s group. The same evening, Patil and his associates renamed their panel as Mumbai Cricket Group, vowing to fight the elections—no matter the result—instead of pulling out.
Reacting over Pawar and Shelar coming together for MCA elections, Senior NCP leader and opposition leader Ajit Pawar said: “There has been no politics in MCA till date. Many political heavyweights such as Lalu Prasad Yadav, Farooq Abdullah, Arun Jaitley and Pawar saheb have led different cricket boards but they do not bring politics in sports and it is a fact... There is no need to mix sports and politics.”
Last month, Supreme Court allowed tweaks to the BCCI constitution that covers the definition of “public servants”, which cleared the path for politicians to be part of associations.
According to BCCI’s constitution adopted in 2018 based on Justice RM Lodha committee’s recommendations, public servants were barred from holding any position in cricket administration (BCCI and state associations) but after last month’s verdict, only ministers and government employees will be considered as “public servants” while MPs and MLAs will no longer come under that ambit. All the politicians involved in the MCA elections don’t hold any post in the state or central government.