IOA Elections Updates – Pankaj Singh vs Batra? In another twist to the IOA elections, Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh’s son is likely to take on incumbent president Narinder Batra for the top job. According to various reports, Pankaj Singh who is also the President of Fencing Federation of India will be contesting IOA Elections for President post. Follow LIVE Updates InsideSport.IN.
IOA Elections: IOC writes to Narinder Batra, IOA to hold AGM on Dec 19,…
IOA Elections: Narinder Batra gets some competition, Rajnath Singh’s son likely to contest IOA Elections
Who is Pankaj Singh? Pankaj is the president of the Fencing Association of India (FAI), which has Batra’s long-time nemesis Rajeev Mehta as its secretary general.
FAI is the ‘member’ national sports federation (NSF) of the IOA. Notably, the 42-year-old is also BJP’s general secretary for Uttar Pradesh.
Earlier in August this year, Pankaj was elected unopposed as the president of the fencing body.
According to the TOI, two top serving union ministers have backed his candidature after Mehta approached them with the idea.
Why Mehta is not contesting for IOA Presidency? Mehta himself has become ineligible to run for the IOA Secretary General post for the third successive term due to the ‘tenure’ clause in the national sports code.
Mehta will have to undergo a cooling-off period of four years.
The possibility of Pankaj contesting the election has left Batra on a tricky wicket.
Batra is already in soup after a court case filed by lawyer and sports activist Rahul Mehra against the elections.
IOA Elections Updates – Pankaj Singh vs Batra? The Delhi High Court has stayed elections to the executive committee of the IOA on a plea by Rahul Mehra. Mehra has stated that the proposed elections to be held on December 19 are wholly illegal and unsustainable and should not to be conducted pending the hearing.
