Kolkata clubs go through pre-election process as disagreement over ISL looms large

THE WORKING COMMITTEE ELECTIONS of both major Kolkata clubs East Bengal and Mohun Bagan are approaching, and the wheels are already in motion in various ways.

At Mohun Bagan, club president Tutu Bose resigned last week citing health concern in the middle of growing internal disagreement among club officials about whether the club should try to switch to the cash rich Indian Super League from I-League, the top division league of India. The perceived power vacuum attracted interest from many groups including major political parties who offered help in the hopes of gaining influence within the club. But the resignation of Mr Bose is yet to be accepted by the existing technical committee so there's a position of ambiguity about it. And this has thrown into uncertainty the formation of any coalition for the upcoming elections scheduled for September.

And despite growing discontent among fans and members regarding how the club handled the ISL participation negotiations with IMG-Reliance, it's likely that as long as Mr Bose and another senior official Anjan Mitra don't publicly split from each other, their coalition will get enough votes from members to stay in power at the club.

At East Bengal, a regime change seems unlikely as well, as no opposing faction even submitted nominations for major posts at the club, ensuring that the existing club officials will be re-appointed to their posts without a contest. The one major change in the club, though, is that Santosh Bhattacharya decided to resign from his position as Football Secretary, a powerful administrative post within the club, after 20 years of serving in that position. Rajat Guha will succeed him.

The chatter among the clubs' fans in recent time has often called for younger officials with a more modern approach to the sport and club management to replace the old timers in the administration. While at East Bengal that process seems to be happening albeit at a very slow pace, a large number of people want Srinjoy Bose, who happens to be the son of Tutu Bose, to be promoted from the role of Assistant General Secretary to a greater position within the club. It remains to be seen if the ruling faction of officials decide unanimously nominates him for the position of General Secretary in the upcoming elections.