Court-appointed observer Santosh Kumar Phoujdar at the CAB on Thursday

Calcutta: The die is cast. Come Sunday, 119 voters will decide which group rules the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) for the next 12 months.

Court-appointed observer Santosh Kumar Phoujdar (not Fouzdar) completed the process of scrutinising nomination papers on Thursday afternoon and it was at 4 pm that the final list was put up on the CAB notice board.

Phoujdar’s day started with a ‘date’ with Ajit Panja. The former Union minister clarified that he didn’t want to contest for the post of CAB president and that his signature had been penned at the wrong place.

“The observer was satisfied? The comedy of errors is over,” Panja said before leaving the CAB.

The stage was thus cleared for Jagmohan Dalmiya and Prasun Mukherjee to fight for the president’s post in arguably the most high-profile CAB elections.

Phoujdar’s next job was to settle three disputed cases. He heard officials of Ballygunge Sporting, Victoria Sporting and Narkeldanga Sir Gurudas Institute before clearing the nominations of all.

A letter regarding South Suburban’s nomination was brought to Phoujdar, but the observer refused to hear it.

It was learnt that Bata and Calcutta Rangers, whose nominations had been cancelled on Wednesday itself, tried to argue their cases afresh on Thursday but Phoujdar wasn’t impressed. Those are the only two clubs, which will miss out in Sunday’s voting.

Interacting the media after the day’s proceedings, Mukherjee said he was very happy with the observer’s role. “He handled the matter very well, all rules and procedures were followed? All rightful voters can vote fearlessly and secretly on Sunday,” said the commissioner of police.

He further informed that it had been decided that all results would be declared together. This is a departure from the norm followed in the past few years, when the president’s election would first be conducted and its result announced before moving on to voting for other office-bearers.

As Dalmiya explained, it had been decided unanimously to have voting for all posts at the same time this year primarily to save time. “For the past six-seven years, there hadn’t been any contest for the working committee slots as a rotation policy among clubs was followed. This time, there could be a contest for the working committee (12 seats for first division clubs, 12 for second division and four for districts), and so voting process may become lengthy.”

As of now, a contest is on the cards for the working committee. But the two sides could yet reach a consensus whereby the rotation policy would continue.

How did the two ‘captains’ look at the scenario now that the voters’ list has been finalised?

“I can’t talk of numbers, but I’m confident we’ll win?” said Mukherjee.

“The process of scrutiny was completed today? nothing happened which made us more or less confident than what we already were?” said Dalmiya.

THOSE WHO WILL VOTE

First division clubs

• Aikya Sammilani — Subir Ganguly;
• Ananda Bazar Patrika SC — Siddhartha Ghosh;
• Aryan — Samar Pal;
• BNR — Saibal Bose;
• Ballygunge United — Ashim Sen;
• Barisha Sporting — Snehashish Ganguly;
• Belgachia — Arun Mitra;
• Bhowanipur — Srinjoy Bose;
• Burnpur CC — Malay Majumdar;
• Calcutta Cricket Club — Utpal Ganguly;
• Customs — Gautam Roy;
• Calcutta Port Trust — Shibaji Banerjee;
• Dakshin Kalikata Sansad — Hironmoy Chatterjee;
• Dalhousie AC — Tapan Chaki;
• East Bengal — Debabrata Sarkar;
• Eastern Railway SA — K. Gangopadhyay;
• George Telegraph — Subrata Dutta;
• High Court — Ajit Panja;
• Kalighat — Joydeep Kolay;
• Kumartuli — Saradindu Pal;
• Mohammedan Sporting — M.J. Akbar;
• Mohun Bagan — Debashish Datta;
• Manoharpukur Milan Samity — Bikash Roy Chowdhury;
• Netaji Subhas Institute — Swapan Mondal;
• Paikpara — Rupendranath Maity;
• Rajasthan — M.L. Khaitan;
• Shibpur Institute — Ambica Banerjee;
• Shambazar — Goutam Das Gupta;
• Sporting Union — Shivaji Ray;
• Suburban — Swapan Mukherjee;
• Tapan Memorial — Shib Kumar Kalyani;
• Tollygunge Agragami — Ashit Chatterjee;
• Town — Debabrata Das;
• Victoria — Ranjit Gupta;
• Young Bengal — Asit Chatterjee;
• YMCA (College) — Atanu Ghosh;
• Wari — Prabir Chakraborty
  

Second division clubs

• Abasar — Ashok Ray;
• Albert SC — Manindra Sen;
• Alipore SC — Pradyut Bose;
• Amateur CC — Chitrak Mitra;
• Ariadaha — Tushar Sarkar;
• Aurora — Goutam Mukherjee;
• Balak Sangha — Goutam Bose;
• Ballygunge Sporting — Raja Venkat;
• Baniniketan — Debabrata Bhattacharya;
• Bantra CC — Biswanath Samanta;
• Baranagar SC — Pradip Banerjee;
• Behala Friends — Dilip Mukherjee;
• Bengal Sporting — Prabhat Roy;
• Bhukailash — Mintu Das;
• Calcutta Parsee — Russi Jeejeebhoy;
• Calcutta Police — C.V. Muralidhar;
• Calcutta University Institute — Sandip Das;
• Central Calcutta SC — Bhupendra Dey;
• City AC — Pritimoy Chakraborty;
• Cossipore — Dr Joytilak Biswas;
• Cricket Club of Bhowanipur — Nirmal Kapur;
• Cricket Club of Dhakuria — Biren Mitra;
• Excelsiors — A. Subramanian;
• Friends AC — Aloke Bakshi;
• Friends Sporting — Mukesh Somaya;
• Greer — Barid Baran Sarkar;
• Gymkhana — Naresh Ojha;
• Howrah Sporting — Nemai Datta;
• Howrah Union — Indranath Dey;
• IBAC — Aloke Nandy;
• International Club — Robi Mitra;
• Jorabagan — Sankar Das;
• Kidderpore — Balaram Chowdhury;
• Measurers — Arijit Roy;
• Mohunlal — Saikat Goswami;
• Mouri — Amitava Banerjee;
• Narkeldanga Sir Gurudas Institute — Anu Dutta;
• National AC — Amiya Auddy;
• Police AC — Prasun Mukherjee;
• Sahapur Sporting — Shibu Dutta;
• Salkia Friends — Vivek Ruia;
• Sarat Samity — Sushil Shome;
• Satya Sandhi — Ananda Mohan Basu;
• South Suburban — Nirmal Mukherjee;
• Star Sporting — Malay Bose;
• Taltala ES — Jyotirindra Roy Chowdhury;
• Taltala Institute — Aloke Ganguly;
• Union Sporting — Shibaji Dutta;
• United Club — Samar Kar;
• Uttarpalli Milan Sangha — Subal Saha;
• Vijay Sports — Arun Sharda;
• WB Association of Deaf — Bablu Kolay;
• WB Police SC — Vivek Sahay;
• White Border — Amiya Banerjee;
• YMCA (Chowringhee) — Surajit Naskar
  

Districts

• Bankura — Rajib Singh;
• Birbhum — Sushanta Banerjee;
• Burdwan — Abdur Rasid;
• Chandannagore — Suhas Bose;
• Cooch Behar — Ashish Sarkar;
• Dakshin Dinajpur — Goutam Goswami;
• Hooghly — Supratim Sarkar;
• Howrah — Abhijit Dutta;
• Jalpaiguri — Ashok Prasad Ray;
• Malda — Subhashish Sarkar;
• Manbhum — Mohammed Misbahuddin;
• Midnapore — K.D. Pal;
• Murshidabad — Timir Ghosh;
• Nadia — Gobinda Dutta;
• North 24 Parganas — Manas Mukherjee;
• South 24 Parganas — Rathindranath Sarkar;
• Siliguri — Samir Bindu Dhar;
• Uttar Dinajpur — Subhashish Chanda
  

Universities

• Burdwan — Dr S. Dan;
• Calcutta University Sports Board — Dr Samir Banerjee;
• Jadavpur — Dr Rajat Roy;
• Kalyani — Dr S. Bhowmick;
• North Bengal — Dr Dilip Sarkar;
• Rabindra Bharati — Arati Sharma;
• Technological Students’ Gymkhana — Sabyasachi Chowdhury;
• Visva Bharati — Dr Sagarika Banerjee
  

Association

• West Bengal Office Sports Board — Pradip Basu