Jaipur, Dec 7 (IANS) Union minister C.P. Joshi Monday defeated Indian cricket board vice-president Lalit Modi in a much-talked-about election for the post of Rajasthan Cricket Association (RCA) president.
Joshi defeated Modi, who is also the chairman of the Indian Premier League (IPL), by a margin of six votes. Joshi secured 19 votes while Modi was able to garner only 13 of the district association votes.

It is for the second time in less then a year that Modi has lost elections for the top post of RCA. In March, Modi had lost to a Rajasthan-based bureaucrat Sanjay Dixit, who this time was selected as the RCA secretary.

It was the first time in the history of RCA that a leader of the stature of Joshi fought the election to the top post.

As soon as the news of Joshi winning the election was announced, his supporters started to gather and shouted slogans and distributed sweets in the state office of the Congress party where Joshi since morning was keeping an eye on the poll, which was being held at the RCA academy.

After winning, a visibly happy Joshi said he would work for the development of cricket in the state.

“I, with the support of my colleagues in RCA, would do my best for the development of the game in the state”, Joshi told reporters here.

Earlier in the day, unruly scenes were witnessed at the RCA where supporters of both the groups clashed alleging rigging and police had to intervene to restore normalcy.

Both the parties had brought their supporters in large numbers. Fearing violence, a large contingent was deputed in SMS stadium where RCA academy is situated.

Lalit Modi refused to directly hold any one responsible for the trouble.

“I and my supporters were manhandled by the rival group. There is no point in politicising the issue. I don’t know who the people were. It is the job of the police who would be able to identify the miscreants as lot of video footage is available”, Modi said while talking to media persons.

When Modi came out after casting his vote, Joshi’s supporters allegedly jeered him, and even threw stones at his car. Joshi termed the incident as unfortunate.