Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar was re-elected president of the Mumbai Cricket Association at its biennial elections in Mumbai on Wednesday.
Contesting on behalf of the BJP-backed Pawar-Bal Mahaddalkar group, the former BCCI and ICC president defeated the Shiv Sena-backed 'Cricket First' group's candidate Vijay Patil by 176-142 votes.
BJP’s Mumbai chief Ashish Shelar and former India captain and selector Dilip Vengsarkar, of the Pawar group, were elected vice-presidents.
Nitin Dalal was elected treasurer while Unmesh Khanvilkar, of the 'Cricket First' group, and P V Shetty joint-secretaries.
Pawar emerged victorious in a straight contest to retain control over the association he headed for 10 years, from 2001 to 2010 and 2012.
His re-election continues a two-decade trend of a politician at the helm of the MCA, barring a brief period when Ravi Savant was president following the untimely demise of the then chief, Vilasrao Deshmukh.
Sawant, who was a former vice-president of the BCCI when Narayanswami Srinivasan was at the helm, was surprisingly defeated in the contest for joint-secretary.
The Pawar-Mahaddalkar panel swept the managing committee posts, winning 10 of 11. Former India Test batsman Pravin Amre was the lone man from Patil's panel to find a place among those elected.
Former Test cricketers Lalchand Rajput and Abey Kuruvilla, both from Patil's panel, were also beaten. While Rajput was attempting to regain the position of joint-secretary that he occupied in the past, Kuruvilla contested for vice-president.
Dalal, from the Pawar-Mahaddalkar panel, defeated Mayank Khandwala.
The elected candidates-
President: Sharad Pawar
Vice-presidents: Dilip Vengsarkar and Ashish Shelar
Joint-secretaries: P V Shetty and Unmesh Khanvilkar
Treasurer: Nitin Dalal
Managing Committee members: Vinod Deshpande, Arvind Kadam, Ramesh Vazge, Pankaj Thakur, Ganesh Iyer, Navin Shetty, Shrikant Tigdi, Shah Alam, Arman Malik, Deepak Patil and Pravin Amre.
