The political circles are viewing Chakraborty’s decision to contest CAB polls as a direct confrontation between him and the CM.
KOLKATA: The elections for the post of Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) president took a dramatic political turn on Saturday night.
West Bengal Sports and Transport minister, Subhash Chakraborty, expressed his desire to contest the elections against Kolkata Police commissioner, Prasun Mukherjee, who is being backed by chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee himself.
The political circles are viewing Chakraborty’s decision as a direct confrontation between him and Bhattacharjee.
The decision of Chakraborty to contest the elections has been floated by his close circles in CPI(M) on Saturday night, although the minister is currently in Pune and is not expected to be in West Bengal before a week.
He has conveyed through his supporters that he is not willing to see a police officer at the helm of affairs in a sports organisation and hence he has decided to contest.
The confrontation between Bhattacharjee and Chakraborty over CAB elections had been brewing for quite some time.
In July 2006, when Bhattacharjee fielded Mukherjee against the erstwhile CAB president, Jagmohan Dalmia, the decision was criticised by Chakraborty, who then commented that it was unfair to capture power in CAB through a police officer.
However, Dalmia defeated Mukherjee by six votes. The chief minister described Dalmia’s win as the win of the evil force and vowed to continue his fight to oust Dalmia from CAB.
It was then decided that CPI(M), as a party, would not get involved in any affairs of any sports organisation. Meanwhile, Dalmia had to vacate his post of CAB president last month, after Board for Cricket Control of India (BCCI) suspended his BCCI membership for life.
Former CAB president, Biswanath Dutta, agreed to take charge of CAB for the interim period. But Dutta decided to opt out when Bhattacharjee again fielded Mukherjee.
CPI(M) state secretary and the Left Front chairman in West Bengal, Biman Bose, on Tuesday made it clear that the party high command will not allow Chakraborty to contest for the post. “Subhash expressed his willingness to contest the elections and also sought my permission. But I have clearly told him that he cannot contest,” Bose said.
Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, however, refused to comment on the development.
Prasun Mukherjee, however, is tight-lipped on the issue. Indian cricket star Saurav Ganguly, on Sunday, said, “Let something be announced officially and then only I would comment.”
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