Ex-Chief Election Commissioner N. Gopalaswami, 75, conducted the first BCCI election after the Lodha reforms, as well as that of the newly formed Indian Cricketers’ Association. He spoke to Qaiser Mohammad Ali in an exclusive interview. Excerpts:
How different was the BCCI election to the other elections that you have conducted as Chief Election Commissioner of India?
It was vastly different, in the sense that I was in-charge of only the BCCI elections and not the state cricket associations’ elections. There is a vast different between conducting elections in which you are in-charge of all the states, or the entire country. I could not inquire into any matter pertaining to any state association, if there was a mistake. If there was any complaint about something not being properly done, I had no role to play. To that extent it was not a very happy situation because ultimately states [associations’] elections are the feeder to the...