Gopinath Munde, too, wants to contest MCA elections

A day after Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan threw his hat into the ring for the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) elections, senior BJP leader Gopinath Munde has expressed his desire to fight for a top post at the October 18 polls.

It is understood that Munde wants to become the vice-president of the cricket body. And he’s not alone. A slew of politicians want a share of the cricketing pie. Why, many of them own, operate or manage clubs affiliated to the MCA. And that means, they have the right to vote.

NCP president Sharad Pawar, who has headed the MCA, the BCCI and the ICC, is also certain to contest for the post of president. “We are confident he will win,” Jitendra Awhad, an MLA, state working president of NCP, told dna on Tuesday. Awhad owns the Mandvi Muslim Club.

As many as 329 clubs will vote to elect the office bearers and 11-member managing committee. In addition to Pawar, Chavan and Munde, Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray and his son Aditya are also part of the cricketing ‘fraternity’.

While the father represents the Merry Cricket Club, the Sena cub heads the Young Friends Union. But as of now, neither has decided to contest the elections. It is also not clear who they’d vote for.

There’s more. Shiv Sena corporator and BMC standing committee chairman Rahul Shewale owns the Dadar CC. Senior Congress leader and state industries minister Narayan Rane will vote on behalf of the Eleven Seventy Seven club.

Sena MLA Subhash Desai (Prabhodhan Krida Bhavan), Milind Narvekar (New Hindu CC), Nitin Sardesai (Dadar-Parsi Zoroastrian) and Ashish Shelar (Rajasthan Sports Club) will all have a say in the outcome of the elections.