After becoming an electoral candidate of the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA), senior BJP leader Gopinath Munde on Saturday expressed his desire of contesting the forthcoming MCA elections for the very first time.
“I have yet not decided to contest the MCA elections…but yes I am planning to go for it. The cricket club of which I took a membership has sent my name as their representative for the upcoming elections,” Mr Munde said while talking to reporters at YB Chavan Centre. He, however, refused to divulge other details such as the post for which he is possibly going to contest the MCA elections for the first time.
Mr Munde has recently taken up the membership of Stylo Cricket Club of Girgaum. Along with this, he has also become an eligible member who could vote for the elections of the MCA scheduled on October 18.
It was significant that Mr Munde’s name was announced just a day after chief minister Prithviraj Chavan also joined the race by registering himself as the new representative of the Mazgaon Cricket Club (MCC) in the MCA. Interestingly, MCC had also nominated former chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, who was the president of the MCA when he died last year.
It is believed that Mr Chavan was expected to file his papers for the president’s post against NCP president Sharad Pawar, who is also expected to contest the elections this year for the top post. Mr Munde, meanwhile, was expected to contest for one of the two vice-presidents’ posts.
Owing to this, Mr Munde also clarified that his possible contest in the MCA elections was not related to the ongoing quarrel between the Congress and the NCP. He said that both the ruling parties had differences even before his decision of joining the cricket club and contesting the MCA elections was announced.