MBA polls today, all eyes on Lakhani, Gandhe contest

Nagpur, Sept 24

The much talked about the election of Maharashtra Badminton Association (MBA) will take place on Sunday at a city hotel in which all the eyes will be on the contest between the current president and Badminton Association of India (BAI) treasurer Arun Lakhani and MBA deputy president Pradeep Gandhe.

There are 35 affiliate units of MBA having total 51 votes. However, both factions are claiming their victory. One of the MBA officials has claimed that although Gandhe is claiming victory, Lakhani has an edge over him. Maximum units are with him.

Along with president, there will be contests for almost all the posts. For senior vice president, there will be a contest between Shirish Boralkar of Aurangabad and Dattatray Savant.

For ix vice presidents posts, NDBA secretary and MBA tournament secretary Mangesh Kashikar is in the fray along with Pradeep Gabda, Pankaj Thakur, Omkar Hajare, Mohan Shah, Dhananjay Gadgil Mahesh Vakradkar, Varsha Nadgonde,Sunil Gadre, Radheshyam Mundada, Syndara Shetty and Kulin Manek.Akshay Dewalkar and Mangirish Palekar will fight form deputy president post whereas noted coach of Thane Shrikant Wad will lock horns with Ravindra Deshmukh for secretary post. Jagdish Joshi and Ashish Bajpai are contesting for the treasurer post. Bajpai is also contesting the election for the tournament secretary post with the special permission of the election officer. There will be a straight fight between Siddharth Patil and Dr Shrmila Kulkarni for joint secretary posts.