Arun Jaitley may become DDCA's patron-in-chief

NEW DELHI: Delhi & District Cricket Association's (DDCA) outgoing president Arun Jaitley may have decided to excuse himself from the day-to-day working of the state cricket body, but he could be back in the association as it's patron-in-chief if the ruling faction has its way.
According to sources, this proposal has been floated by the current administration who feel that Jaitley's presence and guidance is required for smooth running of the association.
Earlier this year, Jaitley had relinquished his BCCI vice-presidentship for his close aid SP Bansal, who, incidentally, is contesting the DDCA presidential election against Bishan Singh Bedi on Monday. Jaitley had distanced himself from the BCCI post the IPL spot-fixing scam which rocked the Indian cricket fraternity. Ironically, the same Jaitley has now been accused of not running the DDCA properly by the opposing group headed by Bedi.
Some sources close to Jaitley maintain that his withdrawal from DDCA elections was because he was "sick and tired" of the infighting in the body. With Lok Sabha elections round the corner, he has no time for DDCA affairs, they claim.
Now that the Bansal and his entourage have decided to press Jaitley to become patron, something new in the DDCA structure, all eyes will be on the BJP leader. With the majority of the votes to be cast through the infamous proxy system, Bansal & Co. are strong favourites to win the elections for the 16 posts.
"We need Jaitley's blessings all the time. The opposing group doesn't have a standing to run DDCA. We don't want to take names, but some of the members were given a chance earlier and they flopped miserably," a top DDCA official told TOI.
DDCA Elections
Total number of votes: 4300
(More than 3,000 proxies already submitted)
Voting: 10am to 2pm
Results: By 4pm
Bedi Panel
President:Bishan Bedi
VPs: Akash Lal, Sameer Bahadur
General secretary: Surinder Khanna
Sports secretary:Madan Lal
SP Bansal Panel
President: SP Bansal
VPs: CK Khanna, GP Gupta, Chetan Chauhan
General secretary: Anil Khanna
Sports secretary: Sunil Dev.