New Delhi: A day after Himachal Pradesh Boxing Association (HPBA) nominated Anurag Thakur for the August 21 Boxing Federation of India (BFI) elections, the interim committee, headed by World Boxing representative, Fairuz Mohamed, the Singapore federation president, has rejected it.
The new electoral college was prepared on Wednesday and has been handed over to the newly-appointed Returning Officer, Justice (retd) Rajesh Tandon, who was appointed on Monday. However, part of the electoral college are erstwhile BFI treasurer Digvijay Singh and secretary general Hemanta Kalita, who were removed by outgoing president Ajay Singh over charges of financial wrongdoing. Digvijay Singh has been nominated by the Madhya Pradesh unit and Kalita by Assam.
Delhi Amateur Boxing Association’s Rohit Jainendra Jain’s nomination has also been rejected. Both Rohit and Thakur have been found in violation of Article 20 (iii) of BFI’s constitution that mandates the candidates to be “an elected member of the State/UT member association during the election AGM duly notified to BFI and in presence of BFI observer.”
Thakur’s nomination has also been found in violation of Article 20 (vii) that states the candidate “shall not be a Government servant or hold a public office.” Thakur, a former union minister, is currently a Lok Sabha MP from Hamirpur in Himachal Pradesh.
Out of the 34 state units of BFI, 30 have given support to the new constitution under which Thakur and Jain were disqualified from contesting, urging that the elections be held on schedule and as per the World Boxing-approved constitution.
The dissenting state units — Himachal Pradesh, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat — have petitioned courts challenging these sections of the BFI statute. The pleas will come up for hearing in Himachal, Delhi and MP on Thursday.
Each state unit is required to nominate two candidates for the elections. The rejection of Rohit’s nomination means Neeraj Jain will be the sole candidate from Delhi while Rajesh Bhandari, vice-president in the previous body, remains the only nominee from Himachal Pradesh.
Thakur’s earlier exclusion had led to litigation. The hearing is scheduled for August 18.
The Indian Olympic Association (IOA), in a letter to the union sports ministry on July 30 had recommended that the interim committee be dissolved and the elections be held under the supervision of IOA or an independent authority nominated by the high court or the ministry.
The tenure of the previous set of BFI office-bearers ended on February 2. Elections were initially set for March 28, but were delayed due to litigations that led to the World Boxing setting up an interim committee with Ajay Singh as its head. The tenure of that panel ended on August 2 with Singh’s resignation to contest for the president’s post for a third term.
World Boxing then designated Mohammed as the interim panel head till the new body takes over after elections.
