IOA infighting puts its own election under the scanner

THE Indian Olympic Association's (IOA) emergency meeting, called by the president, PT Usha, on Thursday is expected to be volatile.

- INDRANEEL DAS

The one-point agenda appointment of the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) - is expected to be converted into a multi-point agenda. The 12 members of the Executive Committee apparently have written to Usha to include 14 more points that need to be discussed during the emergency EC meeting. The tussle of power between the IOA president and the EC members has reached its tipping point. The IOA president had issued show cause notices to five members of the EC after receiving complaints from an undisclosed person. The complainant had raised concerns about the eligibility of the five EC members, including its senior vice president, Ajay Patel, and treasurer, Sahdev Yadav.

The IOA president has asked them to clarify whether they are in violation of sports code, especially when it comes to term and tenure. The allegations are that some of the EC members have already completed a maximum of 12 years (three fouryear terms) in office in a National Sports Federation as stipulated in the sports code. Following sports code has been made mandatory through various directives of the sports ministry and courts.