The situation took such an ugly turn that a Left Front meeting had to be convened to stop the party leaders from making statements to the press.
KOLKATA: “This is not cricket!” shouted MP Bhattacharjee, a retired wing commander of the Indian Air Force. The outburst took the morning walkers at Victoria Memorial by surprise. The provocation for Bhattacharjee and many other cricket fans is the politics surrounding the election of the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) president, especially the manner in which the CPI(M) is conducting itself on the issue.
The CAB election has created a sharp division within the CPI(M). The situation took such an ugly turn that a Left Front meeting had to be convened to stop the party leaders from making statements to the press.
The CAB contest is between the sitting president, Jagmohan Dalmiya, and Kolkata’s commissioner of police, Prasun Mukherjee. But, at another level, it has brought out in the open a confrontation within the CPI(M).
Former chief minister Jyoti Basu has openly opposed the decision of Mukherjee to stand against Dalmiya, who has been close to Basu and his family. Basu questioned Mukherjee’s nomination on the “one-man-two-posts” ground, and he has the state sports minister, Subhash Chakraborty, on his side.
A day after Basu and Chakraborty raised these questions, chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee took up the cudgels on behalf of Mukherjee. He appealed to Dalmiya to withdraw from the contest and even assigned Chakraborty the task of persuading Dalmiya.
Bhattacharya has even said that if Dalmiya is re-elected as the president of CAB, Sourav will not have the remotest chance of making a comeback to the Indian cricket team.
After the Left Front meeting, it was decided that the Left Front or the CPI(M) as a party will not interfere in the CAB election process. Few are buying that.
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