Vengsarkar had kept his plans under wraps till the last moment, weighing all his options. The move to keep it quiet could well have backfired as he soon began losing a few key members from his group, who fiercely fought against the ruling Bal Mahaddalkar group.

For the president’s post, Gopinath Munde will fight it out against former MCA chief Sharad Pawar, who headed MCA from 2001 to 2011. Pawar is already assured of unanimous support from all three groups — Bal Mahaddalkar group, Vijay Patil’s Cricket First and Prof Ratnakar Shetty’s group. The final date of withdrawals is October 14.

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For the two vice-president’s posts, eight candidates — Vinod Deshpande, Ravi Mandrekar, Sanjay Patil, Vijay Patil, Lalchand Rajput, Ravi Savant, Shekhar Shetty and Pankaj Thakur — have filed their nominations.

Five candidates — Pravin Barve, Deshpande, Mayank Khandwala, Mandrekar, Savant — will vie for the Treasurer’s post. And 10 candidates Nitin Dalal, Dr PV Shetty, Barve, Deshpande, Dr Unmesh Khanvilkar, Abey Kuruvilla (former India pacer), Nadim Memon, Rajput, Atul Ranade and Shaikh Shah Alam — will contest for two Joint Honorary Secretary’s posts. And 39 candidates will compete for the 11 managing committee posts.