BCCI elections to be challenged in court

The BCCI's twice deferred election is set to be challenged in the Bombay High Court on Tuesday over the decision to allow the Baroda Cricket Association president Samarjit Sinh Gaekwad to represent the BCA in the election.

The appeal challenging the procedural formalities of the BCCI election will be filed on behalf of former BCCI vice-president Ravi Savant, who had been in competition for the same post in the West and lost to TC Mathew of the Kerala Cricket Association by two votes. The BCA managing committee claimed to have passed a resolution that deputed Rakesh Parikh to represent them at the AGM, but Gaekwad claimed that as president he had the right to represent the BCA. Both factions had submitted letters to the BCCI and the house left the interim president Shivlal Yadav to decide between the two BCA candidates.

While Parikh, a BCA vice-president, is a Sharad Pawar loyalist, Gaekwad, a descendant of the royal family, is from the Srinivasan camp. Former BCCI secretary Sanjay Patel, who lost to Anurag Thakur for the post of the election, is a key Gaekwad associate.

Pawar, president of the Mumbai Cricket Association, claimed that Yadav's decision to let Gaekwad was with an intention to favour the Srinivasan faction. "According to the Baroda Cricket Association constitution, the managing committee is to decide their representative for the AGM. But the candidate authorised by the managing committee wasn't allowed to attend the AGM. Instead, the chairman of the meeting allowed the BCA president to represent the association," Pawar told ESPNcricinfo.

"Shashank Manohar pointed out to the chair that it wasn't according to the BCA constitution and sought a clarification from Mr Yadav. All he said was he had taken a decision and declined to explain the rationale behind the decision. As a result, the Baroda vote ended up going to the opposition camp. Had that not happened, the result would have reversed and we would have been in majority."

Yadav declined to explain his decision. "I have given my ruling after going through both the parties' files," Yadav told ESPNcricinfo. "I can't go into the details."

The BCA vote tilting in favour of the Srinivasan camp eventually turned out to be the deciding factor in the two crucial posts. Had Parikh been allowed, the Pawar group may have emerged victorious in three of the five elections, instead of a solitary post. While Jyotiraditya Scindia lost to CK Khanna for the post of vice-president by a solitary vote, Chetan Desai lost to Amitabh Chaudhary on the basis of a casting vote by Yadav after both the candidates were tied at 15 votes apiece.