In Rajasthan, it's BJP vs BJP in battle for state cricket body

The election results of the high profile Rajasthan Cricket Association (RCA) could not be announced on Tuesday, 29 September, after a stay by the Supreme Court on a plea from a state cricketer alleging exclusion of women from the electoral process. The battle for the historic state body, which has produced powerful BCCI administrators in the past, is seeing an intra-party tussle in the BJP which is in power.

A three-judge Bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice V. Mohana passed the order after hearing a plea by Megha Gaur who alleged the  exclusion of women from the electoral process. Appearing for the petitioner, senior advocate Menaka Guruswamy argued that the voters’ list contained “not a single woman voter” or woman candidate in violation of the RCA’s 2022 Rules (specifically Article 17), the association's own constitution, National Sports Code and related orders.

Guruswamy contended that the ruling faction of the association was pushing the polls through in undue haste. “This is a time when India are the world champions (ODIs). Young girls are playing cricket across the country. To stifle them in the state of Rajasthan which has a glorious cricketing tradition and boasts of a IPL-winning team, are patently opposed to anything we understand to be constitutional, just or acceptable,” she submitted. 

She sought a stay of the elections and better administration of cricket in the country, noting that the absence of women on the voters’ list automatically precluded women candidates. The Bench, however, expressed reluctance to halt the process at this stage. “Let the voting take place but we are stopping the declaration of results, subject to adjudication of all these issues by the Court,” Justice Bagchi said.

The council of RCA informed the apex court that the High Court has appointed the Home Secretary as administrator of the RCA to conduct the elections.

Interestingly, the power struggle in the RCA witnessed large-scale involvement of not only powerful members of the BJP state unit but also by Chief Minister Bhajan Lal Sharma. Efforts by the state unit BJP president, Madan Dilawar, to bring the two factions together failed  while a third faction—led by Parakram Singh Rathore, son of former minister and deputy Leader of Opposition Rajendra Singh Rathore—withdrew from the contest as per party directives.

Parakram Singh later said he and his supporters were withdrawing on directive from the BJP headquarters. “Even though we have a majority with as many as 32 out of 38 votes assured, we obeyed  the party’s order and decided to vote for the faction that was supported by the faction led by Brij Kishor Upadhyay—who contested for president against Dhananjay Singh, son of the  health minister Gajendra Singh Khinwsar.  My faction also supported  Pinkesh Jain against Mohit Yadav, who contested for the post of secretary as well as vice president. My faction was all for the  BJP supported panel. I can bet the panel led by Upadhyay will emerge winner once the votes are counted, ” Rathore said after the election process completed.

The RCA was running the game with Vaibhav Gehlot (son of former chief minister Ashok Gehlot) as president when after the change of power in the state in 2023, the BJP government dissolved the working committee and appointed  an ad hoc committee to run the affairs till fresh elections were held. However, the state government which  controls various sports associations through the Rajasthan Sports Act, did not conduct the elections and continued running the administration through three ad hoc bodies.

The ad hoc committees meanwhile, had BJP MLAs or their sons as conveners and Mohit Yadav, son of  influential BJP MLA Jaswant  Yadav, was the last incumbent. The Supreme Court order has sent the ball back to the High Court and  the long drawn legal  process would mean that the body would be run by the state government-appointed IAS officer Bhaskar Pant.

Cricket in Rajasthan, it seems, is played more in law courts than on the field!