Winning mantra: Woo, don’t sue

The plan seemed in place two months ago when the AGM got adjourned after countless court interventions. So, this time around, Pawar and his team decided on a different strategy, simple yet effective: Instead of focusing on reducing Mahendra’s numbers by making opposition votes invalid, win them over to their own side.

Things were set in motion a week ago, with the appointment of TS Krishnamurthy as observer. As the voters’ list started to take shape, the two camps knew whom to zero in on. Pawar’s political connections and the Congress support saw Dalmiya’s camp thinning. Among the first to switch was Goa Cricket Association president Dayanand Narvekar—who is also a minister in the Congress state government. He was rewarded today by being named one of the vice-presidents.

The two votes in Andhra Pradesh (AP and Hyderabad) also drifted towards Pawar because of the Congress influence in state politics, and then there was the dispute over Anurag Thakur’s vote from Himachal Pradesh.

Till this morning, though, the Dalmiya camp was bullish on the outcome. ‘‘We’d counted on 13 votes plus Himachal Pradesh’’, a close Dalmiya associate said. ‘‘Then we thought a couple of floating voters would move over. Instead, a couple of our own allies like Andhra Pradesh and Tripura voted against us.’’

Once the momentum started shifting towards Pawar, a few Dalmiya old-timers like Gujarat’s Narhari Amin and Assam’s Gautam Roy made up their minds. Actually, they sat on the fence because, though they voted for Pawar in the key post, they voted for Dalmiya’s men in the other posts.

Dalmiya’s camp had a simple explanation for the defeat: Their candidate was too low-profile to tackle a heavyweight like Pawar.

‘‘It’s one thing projecting Dalmiya and it’s quite something else having Mahendra as your representative’’, an insider said . ‘‘The personality factor was a big issue, because only Dalmiya could have matched Pawar’s stature.’’