Clearly banking on the influence of BCCI vice-president N. Shivlal Yadav, incumbent HCA secretary D.S. Chalapathi has decided to be in the fray to retain the post in the contest against Dr. M.V. Sridhar in the elections to the Hyderabad Cricket Association.
The withdrawal of nominations ended on Saturday and elections are to be held on July 8.
Insiders say, Shivlal Yadav has assured ‘complete’ support to Chalapathi and Seshadri Venkateshwaran (for joint-secretaryship), who have been his close confidants for years now. Shivlal, who is in the fray to retain vice-presidentship, holds the key in this election because of his influence on the majority of the 212 voting members. Interestingly, he had already declared his support for G. Vinod as president.
Arshad not in race
In another significant development, HCA president Arshad Ayub, who filed his nomination decided to withdraw from the race.
Uncertainity
However, there is an air of uncertainty around for some of the contestants, who filed nominations for more than one post.
There is a feeling that G. Vinod group is banking on the returning officer to disqualify such candidates.
The list of contestants after withdrawal of nominations on Saturday:
Shivlal group: secretary - D.S. Chalapathi, two joint secretaries – Seshadri Venkateshwaran and R. Vijayanand, treasurer – Naresh Sharma, and vice-presidents – Shivlal Yadav, Vidyuth Jaisimha, John Manoj, Dharamchand Jain and Amarnath (Central Excise).
G. Vinod group: president – G. Vinod, secretary – Dr. M. V. Sridhar, joint secretaries – T. Seshnarayan, and Purushotham Aggarwal, treasurer – Surender Aggarwal, vice-presidents – S. L. Venkatapathi Raju, E. Venkat Reddy, P. Yadgiri, L. Arthi Rao and L. Rajender.
