Sumariwala elected unopposed as AFI president

New Delhi: Adille Sumariwala was elected unopposed as the president of Athletics Federation of India in its Annual General Body Meeting here on Saturday.

W I Dawaram, C K Valson and P K Srivastava were also elected unopposed as senior vice-president, secretary and treasurer respectively on the opening day of the two-day AGM here. All the four officials will hold office till 2016. Sumariwala is also the president of Maharashtra Athletics Association while Dawaram and Valson are respectively the president and secretary of Tamil Nadu Athletics Association. Srivasata is the secretary of Uttar Pradesh Athletics Association. The election was conducted by Returning Officer M S Upadhye, a retired IPS officer. The AGM was held in the presence of government observer S D Bakshi and Indian Olympic Association representative Rakesh Gupta. The elections to the posts of president, secretary and treasurer of the AFI are being held after the Sports Ministry refused to recognise the officials chosen in the polls in March last year. Sumariwala and Valson were respectively elected as president and secretary in the AGM in March last only to be refused recognition by the Sports Ministry. In that AGM last year, Karnataka unit secretary Satyanarayana was elected as the treasurer but the Sports Ministry refused to recognise on the ground that he had not taken permission from his public sector employers Indian Railways before filing his nominations. Early this year, following the Ministry`s threat to derecognise it, the AFI amended a clause in its constitution which required that a person must be an existing member of the Executive Committee for seeking election to the post of President/Secretary. The Sports Ministry had asked the AFI to re-elect the president, secretary and treasurer before the end of February but it later accepted the federation`s request to hold the polls during the AGM. Today, the AFI also took the decision to hold mandatory selection trials for selecting athletes for all international competitions. It was also decided to disaffiliate the state units which were not regularly conducting their annual championships and which did not field their athletes in national competitions. PTI