IOA elections rescheduled for December 5

The high-profile elections of the Indian Olympic Association will now be held on December 5, ten days after its earlier scheduled date of November 25 following the resignation of Election Commission chairman S Y Quraishi.

The elections had to be postponed in the wake of the dramatic resignation of Quraishi, a former Chief Election Commissioner, citing IOA's backtracking from its earlier commitment to hold the polls under the government's Sports Code.

The two other members of the Commission, Returning Officer Justice V K Bali (Retd) and Justice J D Kapoor (Retd) then postponed the scrutiny of the nomination till appointment of a new chairman of the commission.

The IOA then re-constituted the three-member Election Commission and appointed Justice Anil Dev Singh, Retired Chief Justice of Rajasthan High Court, as its chairman.

After the meeting of the re-constituted commission, attended by all the members, Justice Bali announced the rescheduled date of the elections.

According to the re-schedule, released by Justice Bali, the list of nominations received have been displayed at his office. The scrutiny of nominations will be held on November 24 while withdrawal of nominations will be from November 25 to 29. The elections will be held on December 5 from 1400 hrs.

IOA secretary-general Randhir Singh is contesting the elections for the president's post against Abhay Singh Chautala, while tainted sports administrator Lalit Bhanot is contesting for the post of secretary-general against Volleyball Federation of India secretary-general K Murugan and Judo Federation of India general secretary Mukesh Kumar.

The elections have witnessed a bitter war of words between the rival factions who have accused each other of trying to stall the election process to garner the required numbers.

The upcoming elections are also mired in controversy, with the IOC insisting it should be held under the Olympic Charter while the Election Commission has notified that it should be held under the government's Sports Code following the Delhi high court order.