Boxing Federation of India elections: Ajay Singh secures third consecutive term

The delayed and much awaited Boxing Federation of India (BFI) elections took place and on Thursday and Ajay Singh was re-elected president of the federation for the third consecutive term.

He scored a comprehensive victory over Jaslal Pradhan in the polls.

Sports Ministry turns it back

They were overseen by the Returning Officer Rajesh Tandon and the BFI interim committee head Fairuz Mohammed of Singapore, who served as an observer and was sent by World Boxing.

Incidentally, the World Boxing President Boris van der Vorst and Secretary General Mike McAtee, who were originally slated to observe the elections, did not attend the polls.

Noteably, the Sports Ministry and the Indian Olympic Association (IOA), which has been at loggerheads with the BFI also did not send any observers.

Singh, who is also the managing director of SpiceJet Airlines, won the contest 40-26. He will be joined by a new secretary general Pramod Kumar of Uttar Pradesh, who succeeds Assam’s Hemanta Kalita.

Kalita was ineligible to contest after serving two consecutive four-year terms as an office-bearer and must now undergo the mandatory cooling-off period.

Tamil Nadu’s Pon Baskaran was elected as treasurer.

The results, however, remain subject to the final outcome of an ongoing case in the Delhi High Court, where several state units have challenged the constitutional amendments introduced by the interim committee that had been overseeing BFI’s daily affairs.

The elections were initially scheduled for March 28 but were repeatedly stalled due to a series of petitions, appeals and counter-appeals.

(Via PTI)