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Punjab Cricket Association elections: AAP leader's father becomes president, party's Mohali MLA wins secretary post
Aam Aadmi Party leader Paramjit Mehta's father and Bathinda hotelier Amarjit Singh Mehta was unanimously elected as the president of the Punjab Cricket Association, while two other AAP leaders, Mohali MLA Kulwant Singh and the party's Punjab general secretary Deepak Bali, who is also advisor to the Punjab Heritage and Tourism Board, were unanimously elected as secretary and vice-president, respectively.
The elections for the PCA officer bearers and apex council members were held at Maharaja Yadavindra Singh PCA New International Stadium in Mullanpur on Saturday and all the office bearers as well Apex Council were elected unanimously. Mehta, a hotelier based in Bathinda, was earlier elected as the PCA president in 2023.
'I am grateful to the PCA members for giving me the opportunity and for being elected unopposed. My main focus in this tenure will be developing sports infrastructure in rural areas. With Punjab CM Bhagwant Singh Mann's vision to promote sports in every part of Punjab, we will promote and spot talent through fair selection policies. PCA has always been known for its hospitality, and since the new PCA stadium will be hosting its first women's international matches as well as its first men's international match this year, we will work towards making them a historic moment. Apart from this, we will also open the PCA Club membership at the new Mullanpur Stadium in the coming months,' Amarjit Singh Mehta told The Indian Express.
Mohali MLA Kulwant Singh, the richest legislator in Punjab with reported assets worth around Rs 250 crore, began his political journey in 1995 when he represented Ward 21 in the Mohali Municipal Council elections and served as the senior vice-president of the council. Singh, a former mayor of Mohali, had contested the Lok Sabha elections from Fatehgarh Sahib as an SAD-BJP candidate in 2014 but lost. In March 2022, Singh won the SAS Nagar Assembly constituency on an AAP ticket, defeating Congress's Balbir Singh Sidhu by 34,097 votes. Singh, who has replaced Dilsher Khanna as the association secretary, said that one of the targets of the association is a new T20 league apart from conducting village-level tournaments in Punjab.
'This is my first tenure in any capacity with the PCA. I believe the experience of being an MLA, where you serve people, will come in handy. We will aim to start a new T20 League, apart from promoting village and block-level tournaments to spot talent and promote sports in the state. PCA hosted IPL matches for the past two years and also hosted the play-offs. We will make sure that the PCA's new international stadiums are counted among India's best stadiums,' Singh told The Indian Express.
Apart from Mehta, Singh and Bali, Sunil Gupta, the incumbent PCA treasurer and the vice-chairman of the Punjab Economic Policy and Planning Board, with the rank and status of Cabinet Minister, was also unanimously elected as the PCA treasurer. Siddhant Sharma was unanimously elected as the joint secretary of the association.
Last month, Dilsher Khanna resigned from the post of PCA secretary. Khanna, 33, an alumnus of Doon School and Delhi University and also a certified pilot, was elected as the PCA secretary in 2022 when former cricketer Gulzar Inder Singh Chahal was elected as the PCA president at the association's Annual General Meeting. Chahal had resigned four months after his election, with reports of alleged irregularities during his term coming to the fore. Former cricketer and Rajya Sabha MP Harbhajan Singh too accused Chahal of being involved in alleged irregularities.
Post the Annual General Meeting, PCA honoured Uday Pratap Saharan, captain of winning Punjab U23 team in Col CK Nayudu Trophy, VRV Singh, coach of Punjab men's U23 team, Umesh Gill, captain of second placed Punjab U16 team in Vijay Merchant Troph, RP Singh, head coach of Punjab U16 team, Jyoti, captain of second placed Punjab U15 women's team in women's U15 One Day trophy and Yograj, head coach of Punjab women's U15 team.
Nitin Sharma is an Assistant Editor with the sports team of The Indian Express. Based out of Chandigarh, Nitin works with the print sports desk while also breaking news stories for the online sports team. A Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Award recipient for the year 2017 for his story 'Harmans of Moga', Nitin has also been a two-time recipient of the UNFPA-supported Laadli Media Awards for Gender Sensitivity for the years 2022 and 2023 respectively.
Nitin mainly covers Olympics sports disciplines with his main interests in shooting, boxing, wrestling, athletics and much more. The last 17 years with The Indian Express has seen him unearthing stories across India from as far as Andaman and Nicobar to the North East. Nitin also covers cricket apart from women's cricket with a keen interest. Nitin has covered events like the 2010 Commonwealth Games, the 2011 ODI World Cup, 2016 T20 World Cup and the 2017 AIBA World Youth Boxing Championships.
An alumnus of School of Communication Studies, Panjab University, from where he completed his Masters in Mass Communications degree, Nitin has been an avid quizzer too. A Guru Nanak Dev University Colour holder, Nitin's interest in quizzing began in the town of Talwara Township, a small town near the Punjab-Himachal Pradesh border. When not reporting, Nitin's interests lie in discovering new treks in the mountains or spending time near the river Beas at his hometown. ... Read More
