From frying pan to the fire

In a candid chat with The Indian Express this morning, a key ally explained how Sourav8217;s sensational email message ten days before the polls backfired. 8220;We lost about five to seven votes because of Sourav8217;s email. It8217;s unfortunate that we didn8217;t foresee Sourav8217;s email could harm the campaign. But it eventually did, as we later found out. We should have kept that Sourav factor out of the elections,8221; he disclosed.

The official said that the fence-sitters in the elections, those floating voters who finally decided the issue in favour of Dalmiya did not take Sourav8217;s e-mail 8220;as a honest confession, instead as a mere campaign tool, intended to malign rather than anything else. It the e-mail also made Sourav8217;s intentions all too obvious,8221; sais the official.

The revelation comes as a huge face loss for the player, who is away playing for Northants. Interestingly, the sensational slur on the CAB president 8211; he implicated Dalmiya of leaking Greg Chappell8217;s e-mail last year 8211; has put the left-hand batsman in a tight spot either way.

Members of the opposition revealed that Sourav8217;s war-cry against Dalmiya had an adverse effect on those undecided, from the second division clubs. 8220;There have been 20-30 floating voters right throughout the build-up. Our plan was to win over the floating voters.

8220;Once Sourav8217;s email arrived, many of them somehow decided to lean back towards Dalmiya,8221; another close associate of the opposition elaborated.

In fact, less than a week before the elections, a faction of the anti-Dalmiya camp already started expressing doubts over the timing and impact of Sourav8217;s e-mail. Many reckoned that if at all Sourav had to lend his support, then the message should have been engineered at least two weeks before it happened.