CHENNAI: The lockdown has stalled BCCI’s plans to elect a new vice-president after the resignation of Mahim Verma. He quit the post on April 13 to take over as secretary of the state association of Uttarakhand. Such vacancies have to be filled in 45 days by conducting elections at a general body meeting.
Due to the pandemic, there is practically no chance of holding a general body meeting by the end of May, by when the 45-day period will be over. BCCI has no choice but to make an exception and keep the post vacant till the situation improves, according to officials in the know.
“Even though meetings can be held online considering the circumstances, there is no provision for conducting elections in that manner. For a general body meeting to elect the new vice-president, members have to turn up physically for the meeting. Since this isn’t going to be possible in the immediate future, we have to wait for normalcy to return,” an official aware of developments told this daily on Friday.
The vice-president’s role in BCCI is not as important as president or secretary. But he or she is part of the nine-member apex council, which under the revised constitution is the highest decision-making body of the board. And in extraordinary circumstances when there is no president, vice-president has to take charge until a new president is elected.
BCCI office-bearers have been in touch and meetings have been held over phone or online during the lockdown, but the election process involves filing nominations, preparing the electoral roll, appointing an electoral officer and casting votes. This process can only be completed in a meeting where members are present physically.
BCCI is in fact going to hold an online meeting of the apex council, which is due this month. According to stipulated rules, this council has to meet once every three months and the last meeting was held on February 16. The agenda for the next meeting is expected to be circulated in the near future.
One instead of five?
BCCI’s appeal to review the cooling-off rule remains pending in Supreme Court. If it stays this way, president Sourav Ganguly, secretary Jay Shah and joint-secretary Jayesh George will have to take a three-year break from administration starting in September for having completed six years in offices of BCCI and respective state associations.
This means that if the vice-president is not elected until September, there is a possibility of the BCCI ending up in a situation where there is just one office-bearer — treasurer Arun Dhumal — instead of five. However, there are expectations in board corridors that its plea will be heard before time runs out.