On the eve of the All India Football Federation (AIFF) elections in September 2022, Bhaichung Bhutia who aspired to be the president was asked to describe the administrative and decision-making skills of his rival Kalyan Chaubey. Not willing to run down his former India teammate, Bhutia called him a “sweet guy, nice person” but did not rate his rival’s qualities.
The next morning, Chaubey, a former goalkeeper, scored the biggest goal of his career at the expense of one of India’s fiercest strikers. Bagging 33 of the 34 votes polled, he replaced Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Praful Patel as AIFF president. Until then, Chaubey was just another BJP member who contested and lost an Assembly election. However, since his election as AIFF chief, the 47-year-old former Mohun Bagan and East Bengal shot-stopper has shown the deftness of a seasoned player to emerge as a key playmaker in Indian sport given that he is also the joint secretary of the Indian Olympic Association (IOA).
On Monday, Chaubey was named the BJP’s candidate for the July 10 Assembly bypoll in north Kolkata’s Maniktala constituency. Chaubey who joined the BJP in 2015 lost the 2019 Lok Sabha elections to Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Mahua Moitra in Krishnanagar. In 2021, he contested the Assembly elections from Maniktala, losing to former Bengal minister Sadhan Pandey of the TMC. He challenged the result in the Calcutta High Court, alleging irregularities and demanding a recount of votes. As a result of the petition, a bypoll could not be held in Maniktala even after Pandey’s death in February 2022. Chaubey withdrew the petition in April, paving the way for the bypoll to be held.
The bypolls in Maniktala, Raiganj (Uttar Dinajpur district), Ranaghat Dakshin (Nadia district), and Bagda (North 24 Parganas) present the BJP with an opportunity to shrug off the Lok Sabha election loss and start afresh. But for Chaubey winning Maniktala, a seat the TMC has held since 2011, is easier said than done as the Mamata Banerjee-led party has Pandey’s wife Supti who will have the sympathy factor working for her. The Congress-Left combine has named CPI(M)’s Rajib Majumdar as its nominee.
Football career and rise
Chaubey began his footballing career in the 1990s, representing India in the U-17 Asian Youth Championship in 1994 in Iran. The following year, he graduated from the Tata Football Academy in Jamshedpur and in 1996 he represented India in the U-20 Asian Youth Championship in South Korea. Chaubey was part of the India men’s football team from 1999 to 2006, twice winning the SAFF Championship.
Throughout his career, Chaubey has enjoyed the confidence of senior BJP leaders and AIFF higher-ups. Federation insiders said that is why he was catapulted into the top post of sporting administration from virtually nowhere in less than two years. When his name was thrown into the ring for the AIFF presidency, former Lok Sabha MP and Congress leader Manvendra Singh, who headed the Rajasthan Football Association at the time, said then Law Minister Kiren Rijiju canvassed for Chaubey. Chaubey was nominated by the Gujarat State Association and seconded by Arunachal Pradesh, Rijiju’s home state.
According to the AIFF chief’s rivals, the BJP hoped that with him at the head of the AIFF, it would have a person who could help it make some inroads in football-mad West Bengal. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has used football — ensuring investors for the beleaguered East Bengal so they could play in the Indian Super League and pushing for the inclusion of Mohammedan Sporting in the top division — and sports-linked metaphors and slogans (“khela hobe”, or the game is on, became a popular TMC slogan during the 2021 Assembly polls) for political purposes.
Chaubey’s rise has had its fair share of controversies. Some of his decisions as AIFF president have come under scrutiny, with a faction of the governing body accusing him and a few other elected members of corruption. He has dismissed the allegations. The Indian football team’s performance has also seen a steep decline in recent years, leading to a section of fans demanding his resignation.
Even at the IOA, Chaubey is part of a group that has openly rebelled against its president P T Usha and their standoff is seen as one of the key reasons why India does not have a Chef de Mission for the Paris Olympics, even as the Games are barely 40 days away.
© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd
First uploaded on: 18-06-2024 at 16:14 IST