Randhir, Chautala vie for IOA's top post

New Delhi: The Indian Olympic Association (IOA) will hold its elections Nov 25 with secretary general Randhir Singh most likely taking on newly elected chairman of India Amateur Boxing Federation (IABF) Abhay Chautala for the post of president.

While Randhir has already made his intentions clear, Chautala told IANS Monday that he would indeed contest for the post of president.

"I will contest the elections. If I am given a responsibility, I would certainly carry it out," said Chautala on the sidelines of the IOA executive board meeting.

After the meeting, IOA's acting president Vijay Kumar Malhotra referred to the correspondence between the national Olympic committee and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and said he believed in perfect relations with the international body, which wanted to know election date by Sep 25.

The term of the IOA ends Oct 10 and to set in motion the poll process a General Body Meeting (GBM) has been called for Oct 18.

To ensure that the electoral college consists of a majority of the national sports federations, as directed by the IOC, the IOA will form a standing committee.

"The IOC had sought information on two issues, one the date of election and the other to ensure National Sports Federations (NSF), whose disciplines are included in Olympic Games, got the majority in the electoral college," said Malhotra at the olympic Bhawan after the meeting.

"The Executive Board today unanimously decided to hold the election on Nov 25. And on the issue of electoral college, a standing committee will be formed to ensure that the NSFs whose disciplines are part of the Olympic Games enjoy majority voting rights," he said.

"The General Body Meeting will decide on the poll procedure. We will appoint a returning officer, who will be a retired judge of a high court or the Supreme Court. We will hold the elections in a transparent way under the IOA constitution and IOC rules and guidelines," he added.

An official each from IOC and Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) will be appointed as observers for the elections.

Malhotra said the General Body Meeting was called on Oct 18 because the next hearing of the case in Delhi High Court on the election procedure is slated for Oct 15.

"The next hearing of the case is Oct 15. We have asked the court that the National Sports Development Code is not a law. We are waiting for the court's reply and will then take a call on the election process," he said.