Arun Jaitley’s close friend Rajat Sharma elected DDCA President

Senior TV journalist Rajat Sharma was on Monday elected President of the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) after bagging 54.4% of votes in his favour.

Sharma, a close friend of Arun Jaitley since college years, beat former World Cup winning India cricketer Madan Lal by 517 votes to register his win.

The Delhi High Court, after the election results of new office bearers, discharged former Supreme Court judge Vikramajit Sen as the administrator of the DDCA. Justice Sen was appointed to the post on January 30 last year. He had taken over from former Punjab and Haryana High Court judge Mukul Mudgal who was appointed in February 2016.

Justice Sen was appointed the DDCA administrator during the hearing of a 2010 petition of the cricketing body seeking occupancy certificate from South Delhi Municipal Corporation to hold matches at the Feroz Shah Kotla ground.

The court, while allowing the plea moved by Justice Sen to be discharged of his duties as the administrator, also ratified the contracts entered into, the expenses paid, selections and appointments made and any other steps taken by him during his tenure.

Sharma's group swept all the 12 seats in the polls. The journalist bagged a total of 1,521 votes while Madan Lal could only poll 1,004. A third candidate, advocate Vikas Singh, got 232 votes.

"I thank all members of DDCA who voted and reposed their trust in us. I now invite all the members to join hands to bring about transparency in the functioning of DDCA," Sharma tweeted after his victory.

Sharma's faction included Rakesh Bansal who won the Vice President's post with 48.87 per cent votes 1,364 votes.

Among the other notable winners was former sports committee head Vinod Tihara (1,374 votes), who became Secretary defeating nearest rival Manjeet Singh by 376 votes.

Tihara is expected to run the daily affairs of DDCA.

The Joint Secretary's post went to Rajan Manchanda (1,402), younger brother of former treasurer Ravinder who beat Pushpender Chauhan by 449 votes. Pushpender is the younger brother of Chetan Chauhan.

Coach Sanjay Bhardwaj was elected for the Director's post (first class cricketer) while Renu Khanna became the woman director.

With agency inputs