Ajay Singh re-elected boxing federation president in polls delayed by almost five months

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Ajay Singh was re-elected President of the Boxing Federation of India (BFI) for a third consecutive term on Thursday, in polls delayed by almost five months due to legal issues between various competing factions.

Singh, representing Uttarakhand, defeated former boxer Jaslal Pradhan, from the Sikkim unit, 40-26 in the election conducted in the presence of Returning Officer Rajesh Tandon and BFI interim committee head Fairuz Mohammed of Singapore, who was sent by World Boxing as an observer.

World Boxing president Boris van der Vorst and secretary General Mike McAtee, who were originally named as observers, did not attend the election. The union sports ministry and the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) also didn’t send any observers.

Singh, who is also the managing director of SpiceJet Airlines, will be joined by a new secretary general in Pramod Kumar of Uttar Pradesh, who succeeds Assam’s Hemanta Kalita after defeating Digvijay Singh 36-30. Kalita was ineligible to contest after serving two consecutive four-year terms as an office-bearer and must now undergo a mandatory cooling-off period.

Tamil Nadu’s Pon Baskaran was elected treasurer after a three-way battle with Anil Kumar Bohidar and R Gopu.

“I’m just happy that we get to continue the good work that the BFI has been doing for the past eight years,” Singh was quoted as saying by PTI. “We want to ensure that our boxers get many more opportunities and get to bring Olympic medals for the country.”
Talking about his plans in his third term in office, Singh said: “My foremost commitment is to ensure that every ounce of energy now goes into strengthening grassroots programmes, empowering our junior and youth athletes, and building on India’s growing stature in world boxing.”

Ministry awaits court order

The results, however, remain subject to the 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.

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After the constitutional amendments that prevented Anurag Thakur from fighting for the BFI President’s post, the ministry said it will adopt a wait-and-watch approach.

“We have already told the Delhi High Court that we do not think that the procedure followed in the conduct of these elections is right. We will wait now and see what the court says,” a source in the union sports ministry said on Thursday when asked why there was no government observer at the elections.

The High Court has set September 23 as the next date of hearing.

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