SUBHASH MISHRA
Dhanbad, Feb 22: The backdoor entry of some office bearers in the new committee of the All Jharkhand Chess Association (AJCA) has surprised chess Pandits as well as chess players of the state.
Though they were deserving candidates and were all set to be elected unanimously had they contested from their own district where they live, they preferred backdoor entry into committee from other districts.
At least six senior office bears in the new committee including secretary Manish Kumar, coordinator Prabhat Ranjan Kumar, treasure Satish Kumar, joint secretary Binod Kumar Saw, joint secretary Deepak Kumar, executive member Alok Kumar Tiwary have got entry from other districts rather than their own.
The new secretary Manish Kumar belongs to Jamshedpur. He lives in Ranchi but he got a nomination from the Garhwa district.
TheCoordinator Prabhat Ranjan belongs to Dhanbad and lives there but he got a nomination from Bokaro district. Treasurer Satish Kumar belongs to Jamshedpur and lives in Ranchi. He has been nominated by Ranchi.
Joint secretary Binod Kumar Saw also belongs to Dhanbad and lives there but he entered in state body from the Deoghar district. Sources said Binod Kumar Saw had sought NOC from Dhanbad district Chess Association but he was refused the nomination.
More surprisingly International Arbiter (IA) of the state Deepak Kumar lives in Ranchi but he entered from Hazaribag district. Another joint secretary Sujit Kumar Singh who retained his post in the new committee lives in Ranchi but got a nomination from Giridih again.
An ex-office bearer of state chess said that backdoor entry in the state body is nothing new albeit it is done in the national body on a large scale too. But in Jharkhand backdoor entry practice was started by former secretary Neeraj Mishra.
Neeraj Mishra is considered an architect of Jharkhand chess. He is International Master (IM) and 3rd IM in the country to have International Arbiter (IA) degree. He made state chess professional and financially strong by bringing outsiders into an association like Pradip Verma and Richa Sanchita.
However, he is also blamed for starting the backdoor entry.
First time in 2006-07, when West Bengal refused to nominate Grand Master Dibyendu Barua of West Bengal to contest in the AICF election, Neeraj Mishra had sent from Jharkhand who became vice-president.
In 2011, Neeraj Mishra made Pritam Singh of Jamshedpur treasure in place of Arvind Sinha of Dhanbad from Ranchi district. Arvind Sinha was one of the founding members of AJCA.
In 2013, Neeraj Mishra sent Pritam Singh from the Hazaribag district to file a nomination for AJCA secretary.
In that election non–association members Pradip Verma and Richa Sanchita of Ranchi were also elected president and executive president respectively.
In the 2016 state election, Neeraj Mishra himself made a backdoor entry from the Dhanbad district when his relationship with the East Singhbhum district association became sour reportedly with president Bimelendu Jha, NK Tiwari and Jayant Bhuyan.
Sources said the Jamshedpur lobby strongly opposed him and forced him to take other districts. He lived in Jamshedpur but had to take Dhanbad door to continue secretary in AJCA.
