Jaipur: Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot looks set to get his son Vaibhav elected as president of the Rajasthan Cricket Association (RCA) Friday, but the Congress may have to pay a price for this.
Former MP Rameshwar Duti, a Jat leader of the Congress, had his sights set on the post but finds himself out of the race following what he claims are a series of machinations launched by the Gehlot camp to propel Vaibhav forward.
His resentment threatens to queer the pitch for the Congress as the state prepares to conduct bypolls to two assembly seats in Jat-dominated districts later this month (necessitated by the incumbents’ election to the Lok Sabha this year).
The dispute over the RCA election has divided the state Congress into two units: While Vaibhav has the support of Rajasthan assembly Speaker and incumbent RCA president C.P. Joshi, Dudi has the latter’s rivals by his side, a group considered to be close to controversial former IPL chairman Lalit Modi.
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‘Gehlot acting like Dhritarashtra’
Dudi’s nomination was rejected because of his disqualification as a member, which came after the RCA disbanded three cricket associations — including Nagaur’s, which Dudi headed — over their alleged close links to Modi, the fugitive IPL founder accused of several financial irregularities.
The BCCI had banned the RCA after it elected Modi as president in 2014, by when he had fled the country. The ban was conditionally revoked in 2017, with one of the BCCI’s demands reportedly being that the RCA remove every trace of Modi from its administration.
The disaffiliation had apparently paved the way for election officer Rajani Ranjan Rashmi to disqualify and exclude the chiefs of the three units — including Modi’s son Ruchir, who headed the Alwar association — from the RCA voters list. Only someone on the voters list can participate in the election.
An enraged Dudi has since accused Gehlot of acting like “Dhritarashtra”, a character in the Hindu epic Mahabharata, and using government machinery to ensure his son’s victory.
“Dhritarashtra’s blind love for his son led to the Mahabharata, now the same thing is being repeated in the RCA elections,” Dudi said. “Government machinery is being misused. Additional advocate generals pleaded the case for district cricket associations affiliated to the Joshi-Gehlot camp. My supporters were lathi-charged.”
He also accused Joshi of being biased and promoting groupism in the state unit.
“Why were our district associations disqualified for having links with Lalit Modi when he called it quits two years ago?” Dudi said. “It was a deliberate and biased decision under a well-thought conspiracy.”
Joshi is believed to have been instrumental in facilitating Vaibhav’s entry into cricket politics after he lost his maiden Lok Sabha election this year from Gehlot’s home turf.
He is said to have ensured Vaibhav’s election as treasurer of the cricket association for Rajsamand, his home district, last month, because only an office-bearer of a district association can be on the voters’ list, and thus contest the RCA polls.
Dudi, the former leader of the assembly who lost the 2018 state election, had become president of the Nagaur district association in August, allegedly with help from Modi loyalist and former RCA secretary Rajendra Singh Nandu.
For both Vaibhav and Dudi, the RCA election seemed to be an effort to bolster their careers after the defeat.
On Friday, Vaibhav is expected to win comfortably against Jodhpur BJP leader Ramprakash Choudhary.
Gehlot’s dilemma
Dudi’s rebellion may cost the Congress dear when the assembly bypolls to two seats, Mandawa and Khinwsar, in Jat-dominated Nagaur and Jhunjhunu districts are held on 21 October.
There is believed to be considerable resentment among Jats over Gehlot’s appointment as Chief Minister instead of Dudi, who was in the fray until he lost the election.
It doesn’t help that Gehlot was accused of the same thing when he pipped their leader Parasram Maderna to the CM’s chair after seeking their vote in his name in 1998 and 2008 — something they see as a betrayal.
Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP) MP from Nagaur, Hanuman Beniwal, whose brother is contesting the Khimsar bypoll in alliance with the BJP, is already making it an election issue, alleging that Gehlot sabotaged a Jat leader “once again” to protect his son’s career.
Jats control almost one-third of Rajasthan’s assembly seats.
If this disillusionment costs the Congress the bypolls, Gehlot, who was censured by former party chief Rahul Gandhi for putting his son before the party, may not find it easy to handle.
The Congress currently has 106 MLAs in Rajasthan, with ally Rashtriya Lok Dal holding one. The alliance also has the outside support of 12 out of 13 MLAs.
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It is an ‘almost impossible’ task to search for and find any ‘virtues’ in Congress. But certainly, it is ‘totally impossible’ to find ‘ ability to learn lessons’ among them, if at all there are any.