New Delhi, Dec 12 (IANS): Ahead of the Delhi & District Cricket Association (DDCA) election, incumbent president Rohan Jaitley has called his opponent and former cricketer Kirti Azad's claims as 'baseless' and has no 'substantial documentation' to back them. Former World Cup-winning player Azad levelled serious allegations against Jaitley including mismanagement of funds received from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).
"I am not aware of the content of the allegations that have been made by my opponent (Kirti Azad), but if allegations are being raised only in the momentum and the heat of the election, it is not something that came up for the last three years. I am fairly surprised that why would someone make baseless allegations without any substantial documentation to back them? This only reminds me of the instance where the same opponent years ago, against my father (Arun Jaitley), made baseless allegations, led garden paths of the other political leaders of the country and they, in turn, made allegations," Rohan Jaitley told IANS on Thursday.
"And where did those legal cases eventually hit too, rather than them being baseless? So, it is a similar story, it is just the same old wine being rewatered by him and being served again to the innocent members of the association for his own vendetta-based ambitions," he added.
When asked about the debate challenge from Azad, Jaitley termed it as a 'gimmick' and said he is ready for healthy conversation.
"I think it was a mere jumla and a gimmick. Please understand. You want to debate with me? Have the courtesy of reaching out directly. You sent out an invite to the journalistic society and the fraternity and you didn't have the courtesy of even reaching out, not even a mere WhatsApp or a message or a call. Otherwise, it's like, 'Oh, he's younger than me, he's like a son to me, there's nothing'.
"I respect the man for what he's done. He's a leading political leader. He's a World Cup-winning player. But at the end of the day, we need to remember that what is being done is politics over here, which is not healthy enough for an ecosystem to sustain. It's important that we have a healthy conversation and I'm always open to a healthy conversation," said Rohan.
He expressed confidence in his campaign and vowed to get re-elected as DDCA president for the second term.
"We are totally confident about the election, we are prepared, we have done our outreach, we have reached out to our members, given them our report card on the work that we have done for the last three years. We have given them our vision and perspective on what we intend to do in the next three years. So, we are hopeful that the voters will support us and give us an opportunity to serve them again," he said.
"We are doing our best to make sure that everyone from the panel of 12 succeeds and comes across and the board does a smooth functioning for the next three years," Rohan added.
The 35-year-old laid out his plans for his next tenure and emphasised building a new international cricket stadium in the national capital which would be double the size of existing Arun Jaitley Stadium, upgrading club facilities and other infrastructure developments.
"We are planning a new international stadium which should be at least twice the capacity of the existing one. We are planning on making these new high-performance centres which would also give an ambit to the grassroots cricketers to come into a synchronised facility of being catered to. We are also looking to expand our facilities at the club for members as well as non-members to ensure that the best is available for them," he concluded.
The DDCA election will be held from December 13 to 15 with the declaration of result scheduled for December 16.