The Delhi and District Cricket Association has got the much-desired extension to complete the election process to fill the vacant position of the president and the treasurer along with four directors.
The Delhi High Court, accepting returning officer Navin Chawla’s plea, has granted the DDCA till October 30 to conduct the elections. The former Chief Election Commissioner of India though had sought time only till September 30. The court, without stating any reason, has given another 30 days.
The elections were to be completed by the first week on August under the previous court order. The high court in its order of June 18 had given DDCA six weeks to elect the president, honorary treasurer and four director.
The president’s office has been vacant since Rajat Sharma’s unceremonious exit in November last year, while treasurer Om Prakash Sharma was removed by DDCA ombudsman Justice (Retd) Deepak Verma as he is also a BJP MLA in the Delhi Assembly. Four directors – Sudhir Kumar Agarwal, Apurv Jain, Alok Mittal and Nitin Gupta – had to vacate their offices following the draw of lots earlier this month as they had completed their respective term.
Chawla at the last Apex Council meeting had stated that the six weeks given by the High Court were short to conduct the elections. There was a common consensus in the meeting to seek an extension.
In an interesting pre-poll alliance, former DDCA chief Arun Jaitley’s son Rohan had agreed to file his nominations for the president’s post. He had emerged as a consensus candidate. Shashi Khanna, wife of another former DDCA president and ex-acting president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India CK Khanna, too were eying the president’s post. However, after the alliance she was being tipped to settle for the treasurer’s office.
The latest development shall mean that the elected president and honorary treasurer will get only eight months in the office since the term of the present DDCA executive be over in June next year.
The present DDCA administration has lost most of its time in legal battles, with lawyers’ bills running into several crore rupees, following an intense dispute between secretary Vinod Tihara and his pre-poll ally, president Sharma.
In such a scenario, DDCA insiders are also questioning how logical would it be to spend another ₹ 1 crore on the DDCA elections that will see in-coming office-bearers serving their respective offices for not more than eight months.