The BCCI’s electoral officer has upheld the decision taken by the Committee of the Administrators (CoA) to disqualify three key state associations from participating in the BCCI elections, scheduled for October 23. On Thursday N Gopalswami, the board’s electoral officer, removed Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Maharashtra from the final electoral roll, thus taking away their voting rights.
In another significant move, Gopalswami also disqualified Rajeev Shukla and Rajkumar Imo Singh, the nominated representatives of Uttar Pradesh Cricket Association (UPCA) and Manipur Cricket Association respectively.
Shukla had met Gopalswami in person on Wednesday, but the electoral officer disqualified his nomination because he had not undertaken the mandatory three-year cooling off period since wrapping up as the IPL chairman in August 2018. Shukla had already served 11 years as a UPCA office bearer before taking up the IPL job in 2016.
Imo Singh, meanwhile, is a Member of the Manipur Legislative Assembly and politicians can no longer be administrators or an office bearers thanks to the changes made in the BCCI constitution last year.
The draft electoral roll, which was announced on October 4, had 38 members including three government-funded institutions: Services, Indian Railways and Association of Indian Universities. All three institutions had originally nominated a representative to participate in the board elections, but as per the new BCCI constitution only their player associations are allowed to nominate a person.
While announcing the election process, Gopalswami had made it clear that if the nominated person was disqualified, the state association could not appoint a replacement. This was a CoA directive as well. So all five of the UPCA, Manipur Cricket Association, Services, Railways and Universities have also lost their voting rights and will not be allowed to attend the BCCI AGM that takes place on the day of the elections.
What happens now?
As they indicated on Wednesday, the TNCA will approach the Supreme Court on October 14, nine days before the BCCI elections, to challenge their disqualification. It is unclear whether Haryana and Maharashtra will follow suit.
If the court upholds the CoA and electoral officer’s verdicts, then the BCCI elections will take place on October 23 and will be contested among the nominated representatives that feature in the final electoral roll.
The representatives can list out which posts they will be contesting on October 11, 12 and 14. On October 16, a week before the elections, the final list of candidates will be released.
More to follow
Source: ESPN Crickinfo