Hyderabad: Former Indian captain Mohammad Azharuddin’s presidential nomination for Tuesday’s elections to the Hyderabad Cricket Association got rejected on Saturday.
Following this result, Mohammad Azharuddin slammed returning Officer K. Rajeev Reddy after this result.
According to the list put up at the HCA offices, Azhar was the only one ‘rejected’ while three were disqualified for cooling off period (for holding posts on the previous body), three barred on the 9 cumulative years in office rule while two were cleared.
“The Returning Officer is not giving me an explanation as to why my candidature has been rejected,” Azhar said.
“They are biased. It’s very sad that people have conspired against me,” he said.
Azhar had filed his nomination on behalf of the National Cricket Club, which had already given the voter authorisation letter to another person ahead of the deadline for submission of representatives.
“I don’t understand why they would not want to have a cricketer in the committee. I have done the hard work and represented the country at the highest level of the game. Who else can understand the needs of a cricketer better? I had so many people calling me and sending their best wishes when I filed my nomination. They all would be disappointed too on the turn of events,” Azhar asked.
The elections were necessitated after Sheshnarayan petitioned the Ranga Reddy District court, which appointed Advocate Commissioner K. Rajeev Reddy as Returning Officer.
However, the HCA filed a revision petition in the High Court pointing procedural flaws. The HC, while giving polls the go-ahead, has asked the results to be withheld till it disposes of the petition, which will come up for hearing when the Court opens after Makar Sankranti vacation on Wednesday, a day after the elections.
“The procedure followed conforms neither to the Lodha recommendations nor the HCA constitution. He (the RO) has jumbled up everything. The Returning Officer has to answer queries of members, who are surprised by his behaviour,” said Former president Arshad Ayub a voter by virtue of being an international cricketer
“I feel that this election is completely fixed. It’s a fraud played on the members and will not stand legal scrutiny,” Arshad added.
List of contestants:
G. Vivekanand, Vidyuth Jaisimha – President
Dr K. Anil Kumar, Imran Mahmood – Vice-president
T. Shesh Narayan – Secretary
E Venkatram Reddy, Ajmal Asad – Joint secretary
Mahendra, P. Anuradha, Srinivas Pattapu – Treasurer
Rakesh Singh, Yogesh Mehta, Dharam Chand Agarwal, Imaduddin Farooqui, G. Rama Krishna, Satish Chandra Srivastava, Vanka Mahender, K. Hanumanth Reddy – Councillor