Calcutta: B.K. Saha is the new Bengal Olympic Association (BOA) president. He won a closely-fought election on Sunday, beating incumbent BOA secretary Dilip Bhattacharya to the top post by 30 votes to 27.

Saha, who also happens to be the Bengal Tennis Association (BTA) president, will thus herald a new era in BOA. Asoke Ghosh decided to stay away after being at the helm of affairs for 20 years.

With none filing nominations for the post of the other office-bearers, Saha has been authorised to select his team within a week.

“There are far too many disputes in some of our state associations… I would try to settle these as quickly as possible,” Saha said.

His other major priority would be to improve the general standard of Bengal athletes. “We have fallen behind quite a bit in the last few years… the BOA should play an active role to help lift the standard,” said Saha.