Former Board of Control for Cricket in India President Sharad Pawar "is all set to be elected unopposed" as the Mumbai Cricket Association president after Bharatiya Janata Party leader Gopinath Munde's appeal against the rejection of his application to contest for the top post at Friday's polls was turned down on Thursday, according to the PTI. Outgoing MCA President Ravi Savant said that the former Maharashtra Deputy chief minister, "whose application to contest the polls was rejected by the election officer on the basis of his residential status, had appealed against the verdict but that too was rejected." According to MCA rules, "only a Mumbai resident can become a governing member of the cricketing body" (PTI, 10/17). The HINDUSTAN TIMES reported "things may finally land in a court as an unhappy Munde has decided to take a legal course against" the MCA's decision to bar him from elections due on Friday. He told media after the ruling on Thursday that "he would move city civil court" (HINDUSTAN TIMES, 10/17). The PTI reported Munde also "described the rejection of his candidature as a conspiracy against him and hit out at Pawar." Munde: "This is a conspiracy against me. I am fighting for justice. There is a monopoly of Sharad Pawar in MCA. I want to fight against this monopoly and I feel that the president should give me justice. If he does not give, I will go to Mumbai High Court" (PTI, 10/17).
