It will be the first time since 2000 that the state will have a new president replacing Anurag Thakur
With Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association convening Annual General Meeting on September 27, it will be the first time since 2000 that the state will have a new president replacing Anurag Thakur.
But on the ground, there will be no difference as all the 10 district cricket associations — barring Chamba and Lahaul Spiti who are disqualified — have Thakur’s hand-picked voting members running the associations for more than two decades.
The only silver lining, however, for rival groups is that this time around all those 25 voting life members, who were given membership by amending the old constitution after Thakur took over as president in 2000, will not be able to influence the result after the implementation of Supreme Court orders.
However, HPCA rival group are still complaining against HPCA’s non-compliance of Justice Lodha panel recommendations in toto.
“All the district voters who will be electing the next HPCA body are themselves disqualified as per SC orders. The district bodies are mostly being controlled by former president’s hand-picked men for nearly two decades. Moreover, there is no public notice being issued by HPCA current administrator (RP Singh),” informed a former Himachal Ranji Trophy captain on Thursday.
When DNA contacted HPCA interim president RP Singh, he said that “there are no directions of SC which apply on district bodies regarding their tenure”.
“We have informed all member districts as well as the electoral officer (Manisha Nanda) and they have been asked to come on the date of AGM (September 27). As far as the question of district representatives whether they are disqualified or not, the SC ruling doesn’t apply on them,” clarified Singh.
Former chief election commissioner of Himachal, Manisha Nanda, who has been appointed by Committee of Administrator (COA) to conduct the HPCA elections, refused to comment in this regard.
The control of Thakur, now a minister of state for finance in the central govt, over HPCA can be judged by the decision of outgoing ad-hoc body which nominated the former president as their state representative in the BCCI next Annual General Body Meeting. However, the COA rejected HPCA’s choice by reminding the state body that “the power of nominating the representative of state unit for the BCCI AGM rests with the state annual general body”.
For the record, Thakur was dismissed as BCCI president by the SC in 2017 for not implementing the Justice Lodha reforms.
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 "Anurag Thakur")
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