IPL chief loses Rajasthan board presidential election to govt nominee

Indian Premier League (IPL) commissioner Lalit Modi failed to get re-elected as Rajasthan Cricket Association (RCA) president on Sunday, losing the race 13-18 to state government nominee and senior bureaucrat Sanjay Dixit.

Modi's defeat will be seen as a serious setback to the dispensation within the Board of Control for Cricket in India, apart, of course, from putting obstacles in the path of his global ambitions.

As vice-president, Modi is a senior official of the BCCI, but it is as IPL commissioner that he rapidly built up his profile and power base in international cricket. While the second edition of the IPL, due to begin in mid-April, is unlikely to be affected by this result, Modi stands to lose not a little sheen and a whole lot of clout.

For instance, though he retains his position as vice-president of the BCCI, he will lose his vote there.

This automatically stands transferred to Sanjay Dixit, or whoever he chooses to nominate. What will worry Modi and others aligned with him in the BCCI is the margin of defeat: 18 votes to 13 suggests a debacle, not a needle finish.

In the weeks leading up to the election, Modi had frequently cried foul, claiming that he was being made the victim of a political witch-hunt. His proximity to erstwhile chief minister Vasundhara Raje was no secret, and in that sense he was a natural adversary of new chief minister Ashok Gehlot.

Yet the charges against Modi were several and diverse, ranging from misappropriation of funds and forgery to high-handed behaviour, including against senior police officers, and the failure to produce even one national-level cricketer as he had promised when he had first come in with much fanfare.

It is a moot point whether all these charges were well-founded, but it also became clear that Modi's stock in his own state association was rather low, and the disenchantment high, despite the IPL. What has become clear is that he had virtually no connect, few friends at the grassroots. He has got his come-uppance at the state level and it remains to be seen how he can manage his career from here in the hurly-burly of BCCI politics.

Ayaz Memon & Vijay Tagore/ DNA-Daily News & Analysis Source: 3D Syndication