Lalit Modi

Jaipur, Sept. 20: Lalit Modi has burst back into Rajasthan’s cricket scene in a quick change of fortunes reminiscent of T20 cricket.

The Indian Premier League chief’s supporters today claimed to have “ousted” the man who had defeated him just six months ago in the state body elections, although doubt surrounds the legal validity of their move.

The turf battle is a reflection of the political change on the ground since Vasundhara Raje, close to Modi, lost power and the Congress assumed the reins. Modi’s standing had taken a knock along with that of Raje, with the new government missing few chances to remind him he no longer enjoyed the same clout in the state.

However, the Modi camp in the Rajasthan Cricket Association appears to have been bolstered by about half-a-dozen defections. The faction held a purported annual general meeting at a Jaipur hotel and passed a no-confidence motion against RCA president Sanjay Dixit.

Claiming the support of 20 of the state’s 33 district cricket associations, the Modi loyalists called for RCA elections on October 14 and “installed” an acting officiating president (Rajendra Singh Rathore) and an acting officiating secretary (Giriraj Shandilya).

Dixit, however, called the AGM illegal and dubbed the Modi camp’s claims “theatrics and drama”. He said only an RCA office-bearer could summon an AGM and pass any motion under state sports laws, and insisted he had the Supreme Court’s certificate to continue for a four-year term.

Dixit had defeated Modi in a bitter, court-monitored election on March 1. In June, the RCA adopted a new constitution with a domicile clause that bars Modi from contesting any future elections in the association, whose presidentship had gained him a foothold in cricket’s big league and powered his meteoric rise.

But Dixit later fell out with his own man, RCA secretary Ashok Ohri, who resigned the post. Matters came to a head yesterday when Dixit suspended two RCA members, Bimal Soni and Samsher Singh, for their repeated outbursts against the association.

Shaken by the increasing dissidence, the ruling camp also withdrew its notice for elections to the secretary’s post and cancelled the AGM. Today, the Modi faction claimed to have held the AGM.

Mahmud Abdi, Modi loyalist and Sriganganagar district body president, said even Subhash Joshi, who was RCA secretary under Modi and had played a key role in ousting the IPL boss, attended the meeting.

Joshi said: “It’s not about joining Modi’s… camp; it’s a fight against Dixit’s autocratic ways.”

Dixit, on the other hand, held an executive committee meeting today at a heavily guarded Sawai Man Singh Stadium. It was attended by state revenue minister Hemaram Choudhary, an arch-enemy of Modi.

Dixit said he had cancelled the AGM because the annual print report was not ready, and that the executive committee “has decided to serve show-cause notices to the people involved in disgracing the RCA”.

He claimed that five or six members crossing over to the Modi camp did not matter, and that the two factions’ actual strengths would be tested only in the RCA elections of 2013.

Dixit, a bureaucrat, has been accused of favouritism, discrimination, funds misuse and the use of RCA resources to settle personal scores.