Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Gopinath Munde on Tuesday filed an appeal against the rejection of his candidature for the post of president in the Mumbai Cricket Association elections on October 18.
The decision on Munde's appeal against the verdict by the election officer -- who on Saturday rejected his application on the basis of the residential criteria -- will be taken up on Wednesday, sources said.
"His application was rejected as the address on his electoral registration was Beed. He can appeal before October 15," MCA joint secretary Nitin Dalal had said after Munde's candidature had been turned down.
According to the MCA rules, only a Mumbai resident can become a governing member of the cricketing body.
A representative of Munde, who came to file the appeal on behalf of the BJP leader at the MCA office, submitted residential proof like passport details, power bills and other required documents.
Munde is allowed to send a representative at the hearing on his appeal, to be presided over by the election officer in the presence of outgoing MCA president Ravi Savant.
If Munde's appeal is rejected, Union Agriculture Minister and former MCA chief Sharad Pawar will be the sole candidate left in fray for the presidentship.
A local club, Stylo Cricket Club from Mazgaon, had forwarded Munde's name to MCA last month saying the former Maharashtra Deputy chief minister would represent it at the elections.
According to the rules, a candidate needs to be representing an MCA-affiliated club in order to be able to contest the polls.
Sources said that Munde's case is similar to that of the late Congress leader Vilasrao Deshmukh, who became MCA president succeeding Pawar after an objection was raised against his candidature by a member who later withdrew it.
"That time too an objection was raised against Deshmukh's application but it was withdrawn and he was elected as the president. This time the objection has not been withdrawn," the source added.
Meanwhile, after the end of last day for withdrawals, there were three contestants for two vice-presidents' posts -- Savant, who is leading one group, incumbent Vijay Patil, who has fielded his own panel, and Pankaj Thakur, from the third group led by former vice-president Ratnakar Shetty.
There were four candidates for the two joint secretaries' posts -- incumbents P V Shetty and Nitin Dalal (from Savant's group), Unmesh Khanwilkar (Vijay Patil group) and Pravin Barve (Shetty's panel).
The treasurer's post will see a straight fight between Mayank Khandwala, the incumbent who is part of Vijay Patil-led panel, and Vinod Deshpande, from Savant's group.
There are as many as 30 contestants to fill up the 11-strong managing committee minus the office bearers.
The list of candidates includes two former Test cricketers -- Lalchand Rajput and Abey Kuruvilla -- both of whom are part of the Patil group.
Also in fray are two former Mumbai Ranji Trophy players -- Sanjay Patil and Atul Ranade.
Meanwhile, MCA denied news reports that the panel probing into the unsold tickets issue during the 2011 World Cup final had submitted the inquiry report to the association.
The MCA managing committee strongly condemned the news report, based on the "alleged" report of the inquiry committee.
"No such report was handed over either to the office of the association or to the joint secretary or to the president and hence all that is appearing is not true," said a media
release issued by the joint secretaries, Dr Shetty and Dalal.
The managing committee further decided to take strict action on the person responsible, the release added.
