BY TC News Desk
Agartala, February 15: Tapan Lodh, the incumbent president of the Tripura Cricket Association (TCA), secured another term in office after defeating his rival Amit Rakshit by a huge margin of 23-5 votes in the TCA election held on Thursday. Lodh, who had the backing of the chief minister Dr Manik Saha, expressed his gratitude to the voters and promised to work for the development of cricket in the state.
The TCA election was conducted in compliance with the High Court’s order, which had directed the TCA to hold the polls within a stipulated time frame. The election was supervised by an observer appointed by the court. Out of the 30 eligible voters, 28 cast their ballots, while two abstained from voting. Three votes were cancelled earlier due to defects in the nomination papers of the representatives of Kailashahar, Ambassa and Kanchanpur sub-divisions.
The voters included 18 sub-divisions, 14 clubs and one life member of the TCA. The election was held for four posts: president, treasurer, council member and life member. Three candidates had already won unopposed on February 13. Subrata Dey was elected as the secretary, Jayanta Dey as the assistant secretary and Upananda Debbarma as the vice-president. Alak Ghosh was chosen as the life member.
The only contest was for the post of president, where Lodh faced a challenge from Rakshit, who was reportedly supported by the MP Pratima Bhoumik. However, Lodh managed to retain his position with a comfortable majority. He said that the voting was completed smoothly and peacefully, and thanked the court, the observer and the TCA staff for their cooperation.
The post of treasurer was also decided without any contest, as Basudeb Chakraborty from the Blood Mouth club got 23 votes, while the outgoing treasurer Joylal Das got only five votes. Das was said to have the patronage of the minister Ratan Lal Nath. For the post of council member, Saumitra Gope of Kamalpur defeated Tapan Chowdhury of Gandacherra by the same margin of 23-5 votes.
Lodh, who had joined the TCA from the Shatadal Sangha club, said that his priority would be to improve the infrastructure and facilities for the cricketers, and to promote the game at the grassroots level. He also said that he would work in coordination with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and the Tripura government to bring more tournaments and events to the state. He hoped that his team would be able to take the TCA to new heights of glory and success.
