Now, Gopinath Munde pads up for MCA elections

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Mumbai: BJP leader Gopinath Munde has become the latest senior politician from Maharashtra to evince interest in being part of Mumbai's cricket administration.
A local club on Tuesday sent a letter to the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA), saying the former Deputy Chief Minister would represent it at the biennial elections of the association's office-bearers scheduled on October 18.
However, it's not known whether Munde, deputy leader of BJP in Lok Sabha, would be contesting the elections after his name was forwarded to MCA by Stylo Cricket Club from Mazgaon as its representative at the polls.
The interest in the elections shot up yesterday when the Mazgaon Cricket Club sent a letter to the association, saying Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan, who belongs to Congress, would represent the club, fuelling speculation he would contest against former MCA chief and NCP leader Sharad Pawar for the President's post.
Incidentally, both these clubs are owned by the same person, according to MCA sources.
Pawar's name has already been sent to the MCA for the elections as a representative of another club.
Union Agriculture Minister Pawar, a former President of BCCI and also ICC, has shown interest in contesting the election, according to incumbent MCA President Ravi Savant.
"He (Pawar) has declared he will be contesting the election. Anybody can contest if he has got proper representation of a club, and he has got it.
"Recently, he changed his address, because of the technical objection raised last time. He has expressed his wish to me and it is quite likely that he will contest," Savant had said earlier.
The presence of these three big politicians, from different parties, has livened up the election scene.
According to rules, a candidate needs representation of an MCA-affiliated club to contest polls. Today is the last date for clubs to prepare representative voter list.
The MCA election dates were announced after a long delay and the last date for nomination is October 11. The papers would be scrutinised on October 12 and withdrawals, if any, would take place on October 15.