Ruling group sweeps EB polls

KOLKATA: East Bengal's ruling panel brushed aside any talks about a wind of change in the club administration, regaining power in emphatic style and sweeping all posts in the elections, counting of which concluded at the Town Hall on Wednesday.
Kalyan Majumdar defeated challenger Kallol Dutta for the general secretary's post by a huge margin of 1899 votes, setting the tone of victory for his other members of the panel.For the first time in the club's 91-year-old history, a lady - Moly Ganguly, wife of former India captain and goalkeeper Bhaskar Ganguly - has also been inducted into its executive committee.
Dedicating the victory to the club supporters, senior executive committee member Debabrata Sarkar later said that the I-League triumph would provide them with the "perfect occasion for celebration." "Our target is the I-League. The players will go all out to win the title back to the club," he said.
The opposition, backed by a number of corporate honchos, hoped that the powerful faction of Manas Mukherjee, which defected to them, would play a "significant role" in tilting the scale in their favour. But the ruling body proved once again that they had the backing of the club members, despite the team's poor show in the last season.
SELECTED PANEL
General secretary: Kalyan Majumdar; Assistant secretary: Shanti Ranjan Dasgupta; Accountant: Tapan Kumar Das; Treasurer: Santosh Kumar Dutta; Football secretary: Santosh Bhattacharya; Ground secretary: Dipankar Chakraborty; Hockey secretary: Rajat Guha; Athletics secretary: Devdas Samaddar; Tennis secretary: Manas Roy; Cricket secretary: Sadananda Mukherjee.