Steering Rajasthan cricket body, Vaibhav Gehlot runs into ‘red diary’ storm raised by sacked minister

While he did not reveal much about the context of the excerpts, Gudha said he could say with a “hundred per cent” certainty that “votes were bought during RCA elections”.

Gudha, who was recently sacked by Gehlot as minister soon after he talked in the Assembly about “atrocities against women” in the state, claims that this “red diary” contains records of “misdeeds” by the Gehlot government and that he had retrieved it from the residence of Gehlot’s aide Dharmendra Rathore at Gehlot’s insistence, while Income Tax raids were on at Rathore’s properties in 2020 during a revolt against the Gehlot government. Rathore is currently the Rajasthan Tourism Development Corporation (RTDC) chairman.

Cricket and politics are inextricably linked in India and often they become a vehicle for people involved in one to make space or consolidate their position in the other. For Vaibhav, 43, who is now into his second term as the RCA president, remaining at the helm of the RCA is a way to remain in the public eye and keep his fledgling political career going.

Vaibhav unsuccessfully contested the 2019 Lok Sabha elections from Jodhpur, a constituency from where his father has been a five-time MP. He was elected as the RCA president unopposed for the consecutive second time in December last year.

Under Vaibhav’s presidency, the RCA completed the renovation of the Barkatullah Khan stadium in Jodhpur and his father inaugurated the refurbished stadium in September last year. The political messaging was clear — despite losing the Lok Sabha elections from the constituency, Vaibhav was working for the development of Jodhpur. He has also laid the foundation of a state-of-the-art cricket stadium in Jaipur. Moreover, it was during Vaibhav’s tenure that the first international cricket match in eight years was held in Jaipur’s Sawai Mansingh Stadium.

The RCA’s proximity to power and politics has remained a constant throughout the years. Though Jaipur did not host a single international match before Vaibhav’s tenure, the RCA was never out of the news for long, primarily because of its past ties with former Indian Premier League (IPL) chairman Lalit Modi. Both Modi, a former RCA president, and current Rajasthan Assembly Speaker C P Joshi are Vaibhav’s predecessors and have headed the RCA for multiple terms.

Modi, who was once close to former Rajasthan CM Vasundhara Raje on account of being a family friend, enjoyed a lot of power during his tenure as the cricket association’s president between 2005 and 2009, a period that also coincided with Raje’s first chief ministerial term.

According to politicians and bureaucrats from that time, Modi often had a say on matters not even related to cricket, and even top officials dared not to rub him the wrong way due to his proximity to the CM. The Congress has in the past constantly attacked Raje over her connections with Modi, accusing the latter of abusing power during her tenure.

Soon after the Gehlot-led Congress government came to power at the end of 2008, Modi’s clout in the RCA weakened. At first, he lost the president’s post in an election to bureaucrat Sanjay Dixit. Later, C P Joshi defeated Modi in the RCA presidential election.

Subsequently, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) banned Modi and government agencies started probing him for alleged financial irregularities. However, he managed to once again be elected as the RCA president in 2014, which led to the BCCI banning the RCA.

The Modi era in the RCA came to an end in 2017 when Joshi once again got elected as the RCA president by defeating Modi’s son Ruchir. With Modi living abroad, in 2019, Joshi, who was once Gehlot’s rival, helped Vaibhav win the RCA presidential election by throwing his weight behind the CM’s son.

Vaibhav’s political career so far has been under the long shadow of his father. After graduating in 2003 with a Bachelor’s degree in law from Indian Law Society’s Law College in Pune, he became politically active in the subsequent years. Ahead of the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, his name first started doing the rounds as a possible Congress candidate from Jodhpur. However, the Congress fielded Chandresh Kumari, who went on to win the election.

Vaibhav’s career has been marked by allegations of financial fraud cases. In 2011, the BJP accused the Gehlot government of allegedly awarding contracts worth several crores of rupees to Om Metals and Triton Hotels, which had reportedly hired Vaibhav as their legal consultant. The government denied the charges.

Then in 2015, a complaint was filed with the Enforcement Directorate (ED), again accusing Vaibhav of financial fraud. The complaint alleged that Triton Hotels, where Vaibhav had been employed since 2009, diverted shares worth Rs 10 for Rs 39,000 to Shivnar Holding, a fictitious firm.

The complainants alleged that Ratan Kant Sharma, director of Triton Hotels, was an old friend of Vaibhav’s and that he held the position of director in Vaibhav’s car rental firm Sunlight Car Rental Services Private Limited.

Meanwhile, Vaibhav’s political launch finally came through when, in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, he was pitted against Union Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat from Jodhpur, the CM’s home turf. Vaibhav, however, lost by over 2.7 lakh votes to Shekhawat, leading to a loss of face for the CM.

Following the Congress’s rout in that election – the Congress failed to win any of the 25 seats in the state – Gehlot was targeted for spending too much time in Jodhpur. At the Congress Working Committee meeting held to discuss the defeat, Rahul Gandhi reportedly referred to Gehlot while talking about leaders who put the interests of their sons above that of the party.

However, months later, in October 2019, Vaibhav was elected president of the RCA for the first time, antagonising former leader of Opposition Rameshwar Dudi, who alleged that his candidature for the RCA post was rejected at the behest of the CM. Dudi attacked the government for “misusing” its authority and for its “dictatorial” attitude and said, “This puts a question mark on the CM.”