DDCA Elections: Arch foes turning allies in trading for DDCA key positions

Those who were at loggerheads for months to see each other out of the Delhi and District Cricket Association, for a change are heading to sit on the same side of the table for convenience of keeping their hold on the lucrative offices of the DDCA executive board.

A consensus on the unanimous choices for the posts of the president and treasurer is expected by the evening. Lobbyists are busy working to ensure that all the six vacant positions, including four directors, are filled with unanimous choices.

A former Chief Election Commissioner Naveen Chawla is the electoral officer for nearly four months and a half. Ombudsman Justice (Retd) Deepak Verma has set the ball rolling for the poll process. The Apex Council was slated to meet today (Saturday) via teleconference for carrying out the draw of lots, discuss the agenda of the elections and a suitable date for elections.

But this all can become redundant. There might not be a need to go for the elections. Those who wanted to see each other out of the corridors of power in the DDCA are becoming allies. For obvious reasons.

The DDCA politics is all set to draw a parallel to the Congress, NCP and Shiv Sena alliance for being on the treasury benches in the Maharashtra Assembly.

Vinod Tihara for long has had a strong hold on the DDCA vote bank. His support had enabled Rajat Sharma to walk into the DDCA President’s office. When the strong mediaman tried to dethrone him, Tihara won the legal battle to retain his position as the DDCA secretary and then made Sharma throw the towel, knowing he did not have right numbers to survive the floor test.

There are two other factions with a stronghold on the DDCA vote bank. One spearheaded by former acting president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India CK Khanna and the other controlled by ex-DDCA president Sneh Bansal.

While Bansal and Tihara have been functioning as a team in the present DDCA set up, Khanna was aspiring to capture the president’s office by proxy. He has been lobbying for wife Shashi Khanna for DDCA president’s post.

Tihara and Bansal have already played the master stroke by getting consent from Arun Jaitley’s son Rohan.

SportzFront has reliably learnt that Khanna has lined up a meeting with the Jaitley Jr later today. It is expected that Rohan and Shashi will become the consensus candidates for president and secretary respectively. Dinesh Sharma Balli, who was earlier tipped to be the Tihara group’s choice for the treasure’s post, in the bargain will have to settle for the post of a director.

Balli himself has played an important role in persuading Jaitley, who has eventually given his consent to become the DDCA president .

The three factions can also join hands with several smaller players to ensure that the six vacant seats – president, treasurer and four directors – are all filled with unanimous choices.

Joint Secretary Rajan Manchanda, who had been disqualified by the ombudsman, in the new equation can also succeed in gaining a key position in the new executive body. DDCA Cricket Director Sanjay Bhardwaj, a key component in the Tihara group, had leveled some extremely serious allegations against Manchanda. That infighting, however, cannot be ruled out in later stages.

This expected pre-poll truce lays bare the ugly fact that nothing, except faces, can change in the positions power of national sports bodies. No reforms can be adequately fool proof.

Court orders and Lodha Commissions can become good talking points and some material for media. Laws can be stretched to breakable limits and reforms can be toyed with. Those who were feared to shout are silenced, off course at a price. That is the beauty, rather ugliness, of the DDCA politics.

DDCA SUPPORT
Anil Khanna, Renu Khanna and Rajan Goel with Rohan Jaitley

In yet another development, former DDCA general secretary Anil Khanna, Women Director Renu Khanna along with CA Rajan Goel had visited Rohan Jaitley at his residence and pledged whole hearted support for the president’s post.

Meanwhile, in the draw of lots conducted by the Ombudsman Justice (Retd) Verma 4 DDCA directors – Alok Mittal, Apurv Jain, Nitin Gupta and Sudhir Aggarwal – retired by rotation and ended their term as director or member of the Apex Council.

Director SN Sharma has been lucky in the draw of lots. He now remains director till next AGM in 2021.

Sharma had stood strong and held his ground in opposing Rajat Sharma’s excesses in DDCA. The draw of lots were held in compliance with the Delhi High Court orders of June 17.

With this the election process has formally started in the DDCA.

 

 

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