The factional feud in the Rajasthan Congress between Union Rural Development Minister C P Joshi and Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot looks set to spill into the Rajasthan Cricket Association (RCA). The leaders are believed to be gearing up for a fight for control of the RCA in elections scheduled for December 7.

Joshi, former state Congress president, recently became treasurer of the Rajsamand District Cricket Association. And Jaipur MP Mahesh Joshi, a Gehlot confidant, became treasurer of the Jaipur District Cricket Association.

To run for an RCA office, a candidate must be president, secretary or treasurer of a district cricket body. Joshi has remained evasive on his RCA ambitions, but his move to become treasurer of a district association gives an indication of his mind. Gehlot, on the other hand, plans to field Mahesh Joshi for president, Congress sources involved in RCA affairs told The Indian Express.

The executive committee of the RCA was dissolved in October after intense feuding between a group led by Rajendra Rathore, a loyalist of IPL commissioner Lalit Modi, and bureaucrat Sanjay Dixit, who defeated Modi in the Association election earlier this year.

The Indian cricket board barred RCA from participating in tournaments after the two factions sent separate teams to a domestic under-19 and a T20 tournament. Earlier this month, the Supreme Court fixed the date for fresh RCA elections, to be held under a court-appointed observer.

A fight within the Congress for control of the RCA is likely to help the Modi camp. Modi himself can’t contest — as per the changed constitution of the RCA, a person who is not domiciled in the state can’t be a candidate.

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