IOA affiliates five federations with eye on Nov 25 polls

New Delhi: Indian Olympic Association (IOA) on Thursday set the ball rolling for its election next month by granting provisional affiliation with voting rights to five national federations and also announcing a three-member election commission to oversee the November 25 polls.

The IOA decided to grant provisional affiliation to Ice Skating Association of India, Ice Hockey Association of India, Indian Amateur Luge Association, the Indian Golf Union and Modern pentathlon. "We had appointed a five-member committee to discuss the issue of affiliation of federations and they have recommended that one year provisional affiliation be granted to five national federations and they be given voting rights as well for the November elections," IOA acting president V K Malhotra told reporters after its Special general body meeting here. "These federations satisfy most of the criteria but they will have to comply with the relevant provisions of IOA constitution and fulfill the remaining requirements within a year or else they would be disaffiliated," he added. It is learnt that the five-member committee had recommended provisional affiliation to four federations but the decision to include Modern Pentathlon was taken by the Special General body. "Majority of the members were in favour of granting affiliation to Modern Pentathlon. So it was included in the list though the committee had not recommended", a top IOA official said. Under the IOA Constitution, the federations under Olympic Games, Asian Games and Commonwealth Games were given affiliation but the IOC`s new rules state that all those federations whose sports are in Olympic programme should have the voting majority in the electoral college. Another important issue was the nomination of a returning officer for the elections, whose notice had been issued on October 5. "We have decided to appoint a three member election commission to oversee the polls. One of the members will be a returning officer and the other can be supreme court judges," Malhotra said. The IOA, however, didn`t clarify its stand on the nitty-gritty of the poll process like the date of nomination, scrutiny, withdrawal of candidates and also IOC`s proposed suspension of IOA`s tainted chief Suresh Kalmadi, Lalit Bhanot and V K Verma who had to undergo jail terms in connection with Commonwealth Games corruption scandal. Asked if there were any discussions on these issues, Malhotra said: "We didn`t discuss anything else. The meeting was held to discuss just these two issues." The five-member committee consisting of G S Mander, R K Anand, BP Baishya, VD Nanavati and Ashutosh Sharma, had its first meeting on October 8th, while the second meeting was held last Monday. IOA secretary general Randhir Singh and newly-elected chairman of India Amateur Boxing Federation (IABF) Abhay Chautala are likely to contest for the post of president at next month`s elections. Malhotra, himself, is expected to run for the election of the Archery Association of India (AAI) on October 28. He has been the president of AAI for more than three decades, and has also cross the age bar of 70, which has been prescribed by the Government guidelines. He is likely to contest against Clean Sports India (CSI) Convenor, BVP Rao for the post of AAI president. PTI