Kenia Jayantilal loses voting right due to MCA's error

Kenia Jayantilal

Former India opener Kenia Jayantilal visited the Mumbai Cricket Association's (MCA) office twice last week - once to pick up the former international players membership form, and then to submit it the next day. He did so to become a MCA member and be eligible to cast his vote at the upcoming elections on October 4. However, he was handed the Indian Cricketers Association (ICA) form instead, which makes him eligible to cast his vote only for the ICA elections and not the MCA polls.

Jayantilal is understandably livid. "I went to the MCA office on September 24 and requested the CEO CS Naik to give me a membership form. The next day, I submitted the form along with my identification proof for my voter's card and even got an acknowledgement for it. But yesterday [Monday] I was shocked to learn that my name was not on the list of eligible voters on MCA's website. The reason for this is that the form that was given to me was not the MCA membership form but the ICA membership form. I wanted to become a MCA member and vote at Friday's elections, but now that opportunity is lost because MCA have erred," Jayantilal told mid-day yesterday.

"Today [Tuesday] I spoke to Mr Naik about this but he said that since the last date [for form submission] had passed [Monday, September 30], so he couldn't help. But I have duly submitted the form given to me by MCA, so why should I be deprived of my right to vote? As a special case, MCA should permit me to submit the right form this time and be eligible to vote," added Jayantilal.

Meanwhile, former MCA vice-president and president of DY Patil Sports Academy, Vijay Patil, who filed his nomination yesterday, is all set to be elected as MCA president unopposed. On the last date of filing the nominations yesterday, 38 candidates had submitted their forms for 14 posts. Interestingly, 39 former international players are eligible to cast their vote for the first time but only two first-class cricketers - Ravi Thakkar and Amit Dani - have filed for the post of Apex Council member. Tomorrow is the last day for withdrawal of nominations.

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