Rajasthan High Court orders RCA elections on May 29

Kolkata: The Lalit Modi faction’s policy of calling of the elections in the Rajasthan Cricket Association was dealt with a huge blow as the Rajasthan High Court on Tuesday ordered that the elections in the state cricket body would be held on the May 29. This move comes after the court realised that calling off the elections days before it was supposed to commence isn’t a wise move and also that the entire election process cannot be stopped once it has begun.

Justice JN Ranka, in his decision completely blew off the idea of the election officer of calling off the elections and also ordered that the election process would restart from the point where it stopped and that the elections would be held within three weeks. They would be informed about the details on May 6 and the elections would take place on the 29th of the same month.

Earlier, the elections, which were supposed to be held on April 26 was called off by the Lalit Modi faction who cited the excuse of being involved in legal issues. Also, it was called off after the passage of two days of nominations.

The interesting and surprising move came on the 21st of April, when the Lalit Modi faction claimed that the Registrar had not ratified the proposed amendment in it’s constitution because it’s certain areas weren’t in line with the Sports Act of the state.

RCA secretary Sumendra Tiwari’s advise to the election officers to call off the elections were met with severe criticism from their opposition- the CP Joshi faction, who believed that they were in the majority and had also sensed an involvement of some sort of conspiracy, which culminated in this move.

Ram Pal Sharma, the President of the Bhilwara District Association was the only one who had filed his nomination for the post of the president of the RCA and has sought the help of the court after he felt that the decision to stall off the elections midway, was wrong.

Rajesh Maharshi and Prateek Kasliwal- Sharma’s lawyers argued in court and pleaded that he (Sharma) had already filed his nominated.

Without informing the Executive, District Cricket Associations or members, the RCA secretary and election officer had decided to call off the elections. This move can be justified in the light that they didn’t want Ruchir Modi, to lose the elections as the CP Joshi faction, were the ‘majority.’

He also stated that the elections would be carried on the line of the recommendations of the Lodha Committee and the results of the same would be kept in a sealed envelope till the Supreme Court takes a decision on the filed writ petitions.

The RCA has also been suspended by the BCCI as even after a lot of warnings they appointed the controversial Lalit Modi as their president.

(With inputs from PTI)