Modi may lose absolute powers as RCA Prez

Jaipur:

With most of the district cricket associations up in arms and a few court cases lodged against him, Lalit Modi is in danger of being stripped of absolute powers he was enjoying as the Rajasthan Cricket Association President.

About 24 of the 32 district units, including that of Secretary Subhash Joshi, have handed a memorandum to Registrar of Societies and the move might result in clipping his powers.

The district associations are also pressing hard to revert to RCA's old constitution as Modi, with the backing of then Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje, had managed to bring a 'Sports Ordinance' in the state in 2005.

Riding on the contentious clauses of the ordinance, Modi was able to route the Kishore Rungta faction in the RCA elections in 2005. He formulated new constitution for RCA which provided absolute powers to the President.

The district associations could not dare speak against the might of Modi but now they are trying to revert back to the old constitution which has all powers invested in the complete executive.

In their efforts, about 24 units have joined the campaign and have signed a memorandum which would be given to the Registrar of Societies. The move was on after RCA President denied to accede to their demands of early elections.

Reportedly the representatives of these districts had a meeting with Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and were assured of 'all co-operation' at the government level.

Ironically, Modi too had taken the same course and the Sports ordinance which paved way for his meteoritic rise might now prove a cause of his downfall.

A spokesman of these associations said that now the executive and the AGM would take the decisions and Modi would not mean much but he might drag the RCA into legal tangles.

Modi has spent his tenure with fighting cases in courts and might continue to do so but in case the registrar wants to constitute an ad-hoc committee his move might prove futile.

In a desperate attempt to cling on to his post he has adamantly refused to bow to the majority demand for early elections and has tried to buy time by announcing that RCA would seek opinion from the Supreme Court before holding the elections of the RCA.

The executive meeting of the RCA which was called only with an agenda to announce the dates of elections ended in a pandemonium yesterday. The tenure of this RCA executive ends on February 21 but in the wake of recent developments RCA looks like heading towards legal tangles.

While more than 20 district associations trying to finalise the dates, Modi took the escape route by announcing that since there were many cases against RCA the opinion of the apex court would be taken before finalising poll dates.

An FIR had also been lodged against Modi on forgery and criminal conspiracy charges at Nagaur Kotwali police station.

Former RCA secretary Kishore Rungta too had launched a scathing attack on Modi alleging that the association was turned into 'Modi Ltd. Company'. Rungta is also fighting a case in the Supreme Court against RCA challenging the provisions of the state Sports Ordinance which quashed the voting rights of the individual members of the RCA.

The rival faction had a meeting in which the RCA Secretary Subhash Joshi declared that they would announce the dates of elections before January 31. On the other hand the president of the Sriganganagar District Mehmood Abdi, who is a Modi loyalist, said the meeting called by the rival faction was illegal.