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Gehlot ensured Joshi’s victory

JAIPUR: The just concluded Rajasthan Cricket Association (RCA) elections turned out to be a fine balancing act by State Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot who salvaged the party’s prestige and unity by ensuring the victory of Union Rural Development Minister and Pradesh Congress Committee president C. P. Joshi. However, Mr. Gehlot achieved this by shooting down the claims of one of his lieutenants, Shiv Charan Mali, for the post.

Mr. Mali, whose association with cricket in Rajasthan goes back to the early 1980s, was prevailed upon by the Chief Minister to withdraw his candidature to ensure the victory of Prof. Joshi in a straight fight with Lalit Modi, the IPL Commissioner.

It was obvious that Mr. Gehlot had no liking for Mr. Modi whose proximity to the previous Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje had made him the most powerful non-political person in Rajasthan once. But, considering that Prof. Joshi had not taken Mr. Gehlot’s concurrence before throwing his hat into the ring for the Rajasthan Cricket Association’s electoral battle, it was more for the sake of the party than the dislike of Mr. Modi that Mr. Gehlot was prompted to forget minor considerations of ego.

And Mr. Gehlot did the right thing as Prof. Joshi had a narrow win with 19 of the total 32 votes. For Mr. Modi, whose fortunes in the State waned with the defeat of the Bharatiya Janata Party in the December 2008 Assembly elections, it was his second setback of the year. In March this year he had lost to an IAS officer, Sanjay Dixit, by the same number of six votes. Mr. Dixit, part of the Joshi camp, got elected as RCA Secretary this time round.

Though it was not a direct fight between the supporters of the Congress and the BJP, the RCA elections obviously acquired a political colour with Prof. Joshi in the race. As Mr. Modi is known more as a friend of Ms. Raje than a party supporter, the BJP’s official leadership refrained from getting involved. Ms. Raje also did not openly figure in the elections.

However, the Congressmen got over-involved in the elections as party workers physically fought Modi supporters at the Sawai Man Singh Stadium office of the RCA. The Government was left red-faced when Congress MP from Jaipur Mahesh Joshi, who negotiated with Mr. Mali for his withdrawal, announced that the latter would be duly compensated with the post of Rajasthan Sports Council president.

The victory of Prof. Joshi, the new kid on the cricket block, marks his emergence as a big-timer among politicians in Indian cricket administration along with the likes of Union Minister Sharad Pawar, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley.

In fact, within one year there has been a dramatic revival in the fortunes of Prof. Joshi, who lost his traditional MLA seat Nathadwara by one vote in the Assembly elections around this time last year. Political observers have been vocal about a growing uneasiness in the relationship between Prof. Joshi and Mr. Gehlot, both of whom have a long association in the party, during this period. The latest development has proven Prof. Joshi’s dependence on Mr. Gehlot’s goodwill.

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