Jagmohan Dalmiya is all set to be the BCCI president. © BCCL
Jagmohan
Dalmiya, who will turn 75 in three months time, played his cards
perfectly on Sunday to make sure that he will become the BCCI president
for a second term when election results are announced at Monday's Annual
General Meeting.
Dalmiya, who is the president of both
Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) and the National Cricket Club (NCC),
and thus controls two votes, gave a masterclass in the art of
manipulation that stumped even old guards in the BCCI.
Having
originally pitched himself as a 'neutral' candidate for the president's
post, Dalmiya kept changing his position continuously to tease and
torment the two rival factions headed by N Srinivasan and Sharad Pawar.
A
long one-on-one parley with Srinivasan in Chennai on Saturday was
followed by a round of meeting with the Pawar group on Sunday morning
before filing his nomination with the 'support' of both factions.
The
fact that Dalmiya will be elected unopposed gives him a bagful of
bragging rights. Things, however, could have been a whole lot different
had outgoing joint secretary Anurag Thakur not locked horns with Dalmiya
in a shadow fight over the coveted BCCI post.
While Thakur
enjoyed BJP's support, Dalmiya protected his vote bank, including his
own two, zealously. Pawar, a veteran politician, was quick to read the
lust for power in the eyes of the young Thakur as well as septuagenarian
Dalmiya.
Realising that neither would budge an inch, Pawar
quietly withdrew from the fray on Saturday night and tried hard to
hammer out a compromise in order to keep both on his side.
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