Modi declared Rajasthan Cricket Association president

Lalit Modi, the former IPL chairman, has been declared the winner of the Rajasthan Cricket Association election. The BCCI's interim president Shivlal Yadav responded immediately by suspending the RCA under Rule 32 (vii), board secretary Sanjay Patel said.

The election of Modi, who had been expelled by the BCCI in September last year for "acts of serious misconduct and indiscipline", as president of the state association was announced by a court-appointed observer in Jaipur on Tuesday. The polls were conducted in January under the observation of former Justice of the Supreme Court NM Kasliwal, but the results were sealed pending judicial proceedings.

On April 30, the Supreme Court had ordered that the results be announced on May 6. When they were released on Tuesday, Modi was declared the winner, having got 24 out of 33 votes - his opponent, Rampal Sharma, won five.

The court said the BCCI - which had earlier filed a petition against Modi having participated in the polls, as well as stated it would "withhold privileges" and financial aid to the RCA should he be named president - could take up the issue in an appropriate forum after the results were announced. The legal dispute around the issue are likely to continue. In its petition filed in January, the BCCI had said that allowing Modi, who was banned by the board's disciplinary committee for life, to return to the RCA would hurt the image of the board.

Modi had entered the RCA polls, despite being banned, through the loophole made available to him by the fact that the RCA is governed by the Rajasthan Sports Act.

Modi's allies won all the key posts in the RCA elections: Mehmood M Abdi, Modi's legal counsel, was declared elected as the deputy-president of the RCA, Somendra Tiwari as the new secretary, and Pawan Goyal its treasurer.