New Delhi, (Samajweekly) Many dead members of the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) — estimates range from 100 to 250 — figure in the approved voters’ list for this month’s elections for six posts. Interestingly, late Arun Jaitley, a DDCA president and a Union Minister, and late Test opener and DDCA vice-president Chetan Chauhan are among the 4,270 voters on the list.
Arun Jaitley’s son Rohan on Wednesday filed his nomination papers for the post of the president. Former Chief Election Commissioner of India, Navin Chawla, is the DDCA Electoral Officer.
Among other prominent dead members that figure in the list are Test players Rakesh Shukla and Man Mohan Sood, who also served as DDCA sports secretary for many years, as well as DDCA general secretary Surinder Singh Sareen.
Abheeta Khanna, wife of former India wicket-keeper Surinder Khanna, and Dhruv Batra, son of Narinder Kumar Barta, a former DDCA treasurer and current president of the Indian Olympic Association, also feature in the list despite having passed.
Some of the other well-known DDCA members and administrators who are no more but have been included are NC Bakshi, Rakesh Bahadur Mathur, Ramesh Kumar Kaushal, Dilbagh Singh, Subhash Gupta, Darshan Khurana, Devinder Choudhary, DP Singh, and Fareeduddin.
“These are just a few names that figure in the members’ list. There are many more old members who we don’t even know and who have passed away. They would also be in the list, if we scan it thoroughly. Also, many members have settled abroad, and they would obviously not come to vote,” said a DDCA member.
The list has been approved by a four-member panel, overseen by a Delhi High Court-nominee, senior lawyer Rajiv Bansal, who confirmed that the list was final and the same was posted on DDCA’s official website on September 28.
Some members are shocked that the glitch has happened despite a former Chief Election Commissioner of India being the electoral officer. They feel the names of the deceased members should have been deleted.
The elections are scheduled to be held for six posts, including that of president, treasurer, and four directors, who have retired by rotation, between October 17 and 20 at the historical Ferozeshah Kotla ground.
Some senior DDCA members say the people who were involved in preparing the list should have taken their task seriously. “At the first glance, it looks like a job done in a hurry, and without serious thought going into it. Just see the note mentioned at the end of the list; it is a proof of the casualness with which the list has been prepared,” said another senior DDCA member.
“The list has been verified on the basis of a random sample of 20 persons drawn from the list [of 4,270 members]. Out of 20, particulars of 18 members were found in order. In case of one member, Dr Narottam Puri, there was an error in his membership number, whereas in the case of one Mr Uttam Belani it was found that his KYC has not been done but his particulars as entered in the register of members,” reads the hand-written note by advocate Bansal, who has also signed it, along with advocate Gautam Dutta, who represented DDCA at the time.
The blame game has, however, already started. Bansal said that the list was prepared with whatever information he received from the association. “This is the final list according to the information that was supplied to me. I don’t have access to their computers, so they have to certify,” Bansal told IANS.
When pointed out that the list contained names of many people who have died, the senior lawyer said: “I have no idea. The best people to ask are in the DDCA administration. I have absolutely no comment to make on that. I am not aware of it [dead people in the list], so I won’t comment.”
While it is a herculean task to scan through the list of 4,270 members, there are no excuses for not doing so as elections is a serious exercise. The DDCA could have begun verification early to avoid resorting to randomly picked 20 samples to check the veracity of the members.
DDCA was established as a Licensed Company under Section 25 of the Companies Act, 1913, now governed by Section 8 of Companies Act, 2013. One of the persons involved in preparing the voters’ list referred to the rules and said that even if they knew about the deaths of DDCA members, they could not have deleted their names on their own. And, interestingly, some of the members of the committee that prepared the list have even attended the funeral of some members whose names figure in the list.
Some senior DDCA members now suspect that certain powerful people in power could manipulate elections since the ballot will be cast in person, and not through proxy as was done earlier.
“The people in power would surely know how many members in the list are dead. So, if they want they can bypass the checks being put in place to ensure manipulation. We saw it happen during the full-fledged elections in 2018, when they used DDCA employees to bypass the system and how the party that won the elections had rented a room — in someone else’s name — next to the polling room at the NDMC building. This dispensation too can easily do it again if they want,” said a member of one of the groups supporting Rohan Jaitley.
