Amicable end to turmoil in Indian boxing federation

Wednesday 28th September 2016 07:01 EDT
 
 

Four years of turmoil in Indian boxing came to an amicable end when the Boxing Federation of India (BFI) office bearers were voted to office. In the elections, Spicejet CMD, Ajay Singh, 51 was elected president of BFI with an overwhelming majority.

The polls took place under the watchful eyes of observers appointed by the sports ministry (Sushmita Jyotsi) and world body AIBA (Edgar Tanner, Oceania zone vice-president), who later declared the elections as “free and fair.” Incidentally, Indian Olympic Association (IOA) did not send a representative despite AIBA writing a letter to the IOA and asking the IOC to write a letter to its Indian counterpart.

A total of 33 units (with the power of two votes per unit) were present. Two members, however, abstained from voting which brought down the count to 64 votes. Singh, the man credited for turning Spicejet's plunging prospects, was elected president by 49 votes, beating his rival Rohit Jainendra Jain who mustered just 15 votes.

“Our priority now will be to bring back boxing to where we were - in the top-10 in the world or even top-five. We should put behind the politics of last four years and focus on boxing, boxers, coaches etc. We will start conducting various nationals now,” Singh said.

“We have plans to start a boxing league and have international competitions. We will formally seek affiliation from AIBA,” he added. Maharashtra's Jay Kowli, who was dislodged as general secretary by Boxing India, was voted back to power. He garnered 48 voted against 12 by Lenny D'Gama of Goa and four by Haryana's Rakesh Thakran.

Assam's Hemanta Kumar Kalita was elected unopposed as treasurer at the end of the nomination process earlier this week.

The Indian boxers can finally heave a sigh of relief as affiliation to the AIBA now appears to a formality. The world body is expected to hold a congress in December where BFI is expected to become a part of the world boxing scene once again. AIBA observer Tanner sounded very satisfied with the conduct of elections.

“It was a very well conducted election and very fair election. I will be reporting to AIBA that the Indian boxing federation is back up and running. We can expect strong showing once again from Indian boxers at international competitions,” he said.


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