Setting apart their ideological variations and political battles, Sharad Pawar and Devendra Fadnavis have made cricket a typical trigger forward of the Mumbai Cricket Affiliation (MCA) elections scheduled to be held on Thursday. However the transfer has sparked hypothesis in some sections, provided that it comes within the wake of the consensus amongst all events to let the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena’s candidate Rutuja Latke win the Andheri (East) bypoll unopposed.
On Wednesday, the Garware Membership Home at Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium hosted an essential dinner for the who’s who of Maharashtra politics as, for the primary time, Nationalist Congress Get together (NCP) president Sharad Pawar, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis sat on the similar eating desk.
Although on the pitch of politics Pawar is understood to throw down a googly once in a while, bamboozling rivals, the NCP chief, who can be a former president of the Board of Management for Cricket in India (BCCI), has tried to maintain politics and sports activities separate. Within the MCA elections, Pawar and Fadnavis look like on the identical web page and the consensus candidate to move the cricket physique seems to be industrialist Amol Kale, an in depth affiliate of Fadnavis from the BJP chief’s hometown Nagpur.
A BJP insider stated, “Pawar and Fadnavis’s unity is confined to the MCA. It has nothing to do with politics.” NCP state president Jayant Patil additionally concurred, saying, “We don’t combine sports activities and politics.”
However not everyone seems to be satisfied, even amongst Pawar’s allies within the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA). Within the Andheri bypoll, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray was the primary to enchantment to the BJP to withdraw its candidate in opposition to Rutuja Latke, whose husband Ramesh was the MLA from there earlier and handed away this Could whereas on a go to to Dubai. Pawar then joined in and issued an identical enchantment and a day later the BJP agreed.
This led state Congress chief Nana Patole to allege that the choice was linked to some kind of a backroom deal between the 2 sides. “It was a part of match-fixing. The BJP heeded Pawar’s enchantment in Andheri East to permit the Uddhav-led Shiv Sena an higher hand. Within the discount, Pawar ensured help to the BJP in constructing consensus for the MCA polls.”
Not solely Pawar and Fadnavis, the MCA dinner was additionally attended by Uddhav Thackeray’s confidant Milind Narwekar, who’s a member of the affiliation. Following the BCCI elections on Tuesday, he congratulated Jay Shah who was reappointed because the board’s secretary and Mumbai BJP chief Ashish Shelar who was appointed the organisation’s treasurer.
Established in 1930, the MCA is without doubt one of the oldest cricket associations within the nation and has at all times seen politicians vie for it. Pawar ran the affiliation from 2001 to 2009 whereas again in 1992, then CM Manohar Joshi of the Shiv Sena defeated former cricketer Madhav Mantri within the MCA presidential polls. Former CM Vilasrao Deshmukh defeated former India batsman Dilip Vengsarkar in a fiercely contested election in July 2011.