Late Arun Jaitley's son Rohan unanimously elected as DDCA president

New Delhi, Oct 17 (IANS) Advocate Rohan Jaitley, son of late Union Minister Arun Jaitley, was on Saturday unanimously elected president of the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) after the only other candidate for the post withdrew, as expected. However, an official announcement to this effect will be made on November 9.

The final list of candidates was declared by the Returning Officer Navin B. Chawla, after the deadline for withdrawal of candidature expired on Saturday afternoon.

Elections will be held for the posts of treasurer and four directors, between November 5 and 8. The counting of votes will take place on November 9 and the results will be declared the same day.

Advocate Sunil Kumar Goel, who had filed his nomination for the president's post, withdrew his candidature a few days ago.

For the treasurer's post, it is a straight contest between advocate Pawan Gulati, a maternal uncle of former India captain Gautam Gambhir, and Shashi Khanna, wife of CK Khanna, a former acting BCCI president and ex-vice-president of DDCA.

A contest became imminent when talks for compromise between various factions within the DDCA failed.

Nine candidates are in the fray for the posts of four directors. Out of these, four belong to a combine of various factions, and they are Ashok Sharma 'Mama', Dinesh Kumar Sharma, Karnail Singh, and Pradeep Aggarwal. Those owing allegiance to the CK Khanna group are Harish Singla, Harsh Gupta, Manjit Singh, and Sudhir Kumar Aggarwal.

And the most interesting name is the ninth one, of Pardeep Kumar Arora, about whom little is known, said several old DDCA members.

Gulati, an advocate, said that if he won he would try and ensure that DDCA again becomes known for sporting activities.

"I will fight a good fight. Post the elections we will sit down as a team together and take up whatever issues are necessary. DDCA is a sporting club, so it should be known for sports than anything else -- that's my primary objective. I wish her [Shashi Khanna] luck as well," Gulati told IANS.

Shashi Khanna's husband hoped for a corruption-free DDCA under Jaitley. "I am confident that the new team under the leadership of Rohan will create the best cricketing atmosphere in DDCA where the entire team works together to ensure a clean corruption free and transparent functioning which will help DDCA bring back the lost glory," said CK Khanna.

Veteran DDCA member Ashok Sharma 'Mama', who is contesting for a director's post, wants DDCA members to be provided more facilities.

"We've high hopes from Rohan and pray that he pays attention to Delhi's grassroots cricket, which has been ignored for long. The academies that former president Rajat Sharma promised in 2018 didn't open. Also, Rohan should spend money on welfare of cricket and cricketers, and not on other activities. He should also improve facilities for DDCA members to bring the club at least at par with other leading clubs in Delhi," said Sharma.

Jaitley, 31, has no experience of cricket administration, but he says "it's not going be tough".

"The financial aspect of the DDCA needs to be cleansed. It should be done in a transparent manner; it should be very open. There should not be any grey areas. It should all be in the public domain and also on the DDCA website. There should be no questions being asked," Jaitley had told IANS after filing his nomination papers.