Four candidates, including three incumbent officials of the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) and two political leaders, have thrown their hat in the ring to succeed the late Amol Kale as the MCA President.
The election for the president’s post, in the aftermath of Kale’s demise on June 10, is scheduled for July 23.
Upon the expiry of the deadline for filing the nomination form on Tuesday evening, election officer J.S. Saharia confirmed that four candidates have submitted their application.
They are MCA secretary Ajinkya Naik, vice-president Sanjay Naik, T20 League chairman Vihang Sarnaik along with Congress leader Bhushan Patil.
It will be interesting to see whether a quadrangular contest persists even after the deadline for the withdrawals expires on July 16. The applications will be scrutinised on Wednesday.
Interestingly, all the four candidates have political backing. Despite the two Naiks – who shared a tumultuous relationship during previous stints – enjoying support from maidan clubs, Ajinkya hails from a political family while Sanjay’s proximity with BCCI treasurer and BJP legislator Ashish Shelar is well-known.
Sarnaik’s father – Pratap – is a legislator with the ruling Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena while Patil – Congress’ Mumbai vice president – contested the Lok Sabha election against Union Minister Piyush Goyal in a losing cause.
As a result, the political heavyweights who are involved on the periphery of MCA politics are likely to discuss the MCA election later in the week, after the state MLC election on July 12.
In fact, due to the MLC election, Sportstar understands that Prasad Lad and Milind Narvekar – close aides of deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and former chief minister Uddhav Thackeray, respectively – decided against filing their nominations.
Patil was accompanied by state Congress chief Nana Patole, who opted against contesting the election at the last minute and decided to throw his weight behind Patil.
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