Arun Jaitley meets Avishek Dalmiya in Kolkata

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Having reached Kolkata this morning, Jaitley went to the Raj Bhawan and then headed straight to Dalmiya’s residence on 10 Alipore Road where he spent an hour and half.

While Jaitley visited to Dalmiya residence to offer his condolences to the family, he did have a closed-door meeting with Dalmiya scion, who is now set to become the joint secretary of Cricket Association of Bengal.

According to insiders, Jaitley definitely spoke to Dalmiya junior about the position of CAB. The official position of CAB, currently can only be known if one speaks to the would be Cricket Association of Bengal president Sourav Ganguly, who is likely to control atleast three votes — CAB, National Cricket Club (NCC) and Tripura CA.

At this point of time, Avishek will work under Sourav and probably need to pay heed to the directives given by the former India captain.

Describing this as a courtesy call, Dalmiya’s son Avishek told PTI: “He (Jaitley) was very close to my dad when they worked together. They had some fond memories and whenever possible they exchanged pleasantries. He had come to offer his condolence.”

In the time of parleys to elect the next BCCI president after the demise of the sitting president Dalmiya who died of a massive cardiac arrest Sunday, Jaitley earlier in the national capital met former president Shashank Manohar, Board secretary Anurag Thakur and former treasurer Ajay Shirke in the wake of news of a possible alliance between ‘old foes’ Sharad Pawar and N Srinivasan gained momentum.

Jaitley met Dalmiya for the last time over an hour meeting at a city hotel on August 23 when the Union Finance Minister was here to inaugurate Bandhan Bank.

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