CONTESTING elections for any post of executive committee of Vidarbha Cricket Association (VCA) will be a costlier affair for those nonserious members who jump into the polls just for the sake of it. The association during its Annual General Meeting (AGM) held on Sunday unanimously decided to increase the contesting fee from Rs 5,000 to a whopping 50,000 (refundable) from the coming polls. The next election of the association will take place in December, 2027.

 

“There was proposal from a member to hike the contesting fee to Rs one lakh. However, former VCA President Adv Shashank Manohar proposed to increase from Rs 5,000 to Rs 50,000 and it was passed unanimously,” said one of the life members of the association who attended the meeting. The decision to hike the fee to contest the election was taken after the association incurred substantial expenses in the last elections (2025) when Yogesh Ghare emerged as lone contestant for the post of one of the selectors. As expected it turned out to be a no-contest and the results surprised none. Ghare fell flat losing by a whopping margin. Sudhir Wankhede (610), Jayesh Dongaonkar (607) and P Vivek (606) sailed smoothly garnering votes in bulk against Ghare who managed to get just 10. “The contesting fee of Rs 5000 was decided in 2006. At present, the fee of election officer goes in lakhs. Apart from that there are other election related expenses which are also substantial. Hence it was decided to hike the fee,” said Farokh Dastoor, CEO, VCA while talking with ‘The Hitavada’.

 

“The contesting fee will be refundable and any contestant garnering more than 20 per cent of votes cast will get back the deposited amount. Those getting less than 20 per cent votes will lose their deposit,” stated Dastoor. Meanwhile, the proposed amendment to VCA constitution has been referred to Amicus Curie. Earlier this year, the association proposed to amend its constitution after 668 life members voted in favour of the changes put forth by Constitution Amendment Committee. There are as many as nine articles proposed to be amended. All were accepted by the members of the association during a Special General Meeting. The Constitution Amendment Committee comprised VCA President Justice Vinay M Deshpande (Former Judge of the Bombay High Court), Senior Counsel former chief of the association Adv Anand Jaiswal, Adv Anand Deshpande and Adv Harish Thakur. If approved, the proposed amendment to the constitution will give more responsibility to a bigger executive committee.