Rival captains tried a shot at truce at the Calcutta Cricket & Football Club on Monday and decided to resume counting for the elections held last Wednesday after a six-day deadlock.
Incumbent president Naresh Ojha and challenger Subrata ‘Babul’ Das met twice during the day — at the CEO’s office in the morning and at the Pavilion in the evening.
At the 10.30am meeting, Ojha, Das, election officer Gautam Sen and CEO Deepankar Nandi went into a huddle for an hour.
All the contesting candidates were called for a meeting at 5pm at the Pavilion. “Some could not attend as they are travelling,” said a source.
Club sources confirmed after the second round of meeting that the counting process would resume around 2pm on Tuesday and the results were expected to be out by 5.30-6.
Hours after the club’s first full elections in 221 years, the three scrutineers — Dipak Rudra, Sanjay Thade and Chandan Sinha — had refused to count the ballots because of what they felt was an “irrational and unreasonable challenge” to their role.
Two past presidents were accused of barging into the pool lounge that had doubled as the counting venue and creating a ruckus around 1am on Thursday. The ballots have remained locked in the lounge since then.
In a report to the club, the scrutineers described the election as more lawless than a poll in the smallest gram panchayat.
When the counting resumes, IAS officers Rudra, Sinha and Thade would not return to their seats, though. They will be replaced by Ranabir Sen, a “very senior club member” and former chairman of tea auctioneer J Thomas & Co, and Kalyani Chaudhuri, a retired IAS officer.
“Keeping the interests of the club in mind, everyone has agreed to an amicable settlement so that the process can go on. Everyone wants this to finish,” said a source.
The earlier panel of scrutineers had described the election night’s incidents as “distasteful and distressing”.
“This deadlock was getting a little tiresome. So, whatever be the outcome, as members, we are looking forward to getting to know the results at the earliest,” said a senior member of the club.
