Calcutta: The battle of prestige between the brothers of the state chief minister was won by Swapan Banerjee.
Swapan, who is the younger brother of chief minister Mamata Banerjee, got elected to the post of secretary in the Bengal Olympic Association (BOA). He defeated Chandan Roy Chowdhury, who was the candidate from the BOA president and Swapan's elder brother Ajit's panel, by a narrow margin of 31 to 30 votes.
The BOA elections, held at the East Bengal tent on Friday, came prominently in the spotlight because it turned out to be an indirect tussle of power between Ajit and Swapan. The former, who kept the BOA president's post unopposed, was against the latter's wish to be the secretary of the association. Hence the difference of opinions and thus the contest.
But to put it simply, the brothers of the chief minister are now in control of BOA.
Though Ajit has a history of being associated with sports in the Maidan as he has been an official of Kalighat MS club for some years, Swapan has had a meteoric rise in the last few years. Swapan also happens to be the secretary of the Bengal Hockey Association.
And it was not just a personal win for Swapan. Overall, seven of the 13 posts which were contested went to members from Swapan's panel (including himself). Jahar Das from Swapan's camp was elected as the treasurer as he defeated Subrata De from the opposition camp.
Basking in the cheers of his camp and under the burden of oversized garlands, Swapan, however, promised to "work together" for the sake of the association and sport in general in the state.
Asked how would the relation between the brothers be as the president and secretary of the BOA, Swapan said: "There's no fight between us... Whatever difference of opinions we had, it was for the BOA elections. Now that it is over, we will work together for the betterment of sport."
Ajit, a little subdued, said: "It has been a fair election... That was our challenge, I'm happy that we could do that."
However, the current set of BOA office-bearers does not feature any prominent sportsperson. Gurbux Singh, a former India hockey captain, who contested for one of the vice-president's posts lost. Similar was the fate of Kartick Sett, a former footballer, who contested for the joint-secretary's post.
But Gurbux doesn't mind that, all he wants is that the elected office-bearers should work together and lift the standard of sport in the state.
"Yes I lost, but that doesn't matter. What matters is that the people who got elected must work together.
"I am happy that Ajit is the president of the BOA and Swapan will be the secretary... They should now work for the benefit of sport. Now that the election is over, I would hope that there are no differences between them."
According to Gurbux, the priority for BOA should be to look at the examples of other states in the country and improve the quality of sport in Bengal. "Look, it's no secret that in sport, we in Bengal are not in the pink of health. Look at how states like Haryana and Uttar Pradesh are producing top-quality sportspersons. So the BOA must work towards that.
"Also, I think the target should be to host the National Games in the state. That in turn would help in developing the infrastructure that we have," Gurbux advised.
The BOA has a total of 64 votes, of which 61 voted on Friday. Hiranmoy Chatterjee (tennis) and Ravi Bengani (bowling) didn't vote, while Paresh Mukherjee (archery) stayed away from voting as he was serving as the observer for the polls.
Rupesh Kar, who was elected as one of the joint secretaries, got the maximum votes - 33.
THE BOA OFFICE-BEARERS
President: Ajit Banerjee; Vice-presidents: Ramanuj Mukhopadhyay, Asit Banerjee, Bani Ghosh, Kamal Kumar Maitra, Gautam Sinha, Bijay Mallick, Krishnendu Banerjee; Secretary: Swapan Banerjee; Joint-secretaries: Rupesh Kar, Sambhu Seth, Tapan Bakshi, Mohammed Javed Chowdhury; Treasurer: Jahar Das.
