By IANS,
New Delhi : The Special General Body Meeting (SGBM) of the Indian Olympic Association Thursday will finalise the electoral college and the poll process for electing its office-bearers Nov 24.
On the eve of the SGBM the battle lines were being drawn with factions led by IOA secretary-general Randhir Singh and former president of the boxing federation Abhay Chautala holding their conclaves for a head count in the Capital.
Outgoing president Suresh Kalmadi and his stand-in chief Vijay Kumar Malhotra have thrown their weight behind Haryana politician Chautala while the group headed by former IOA chief Sivanthi B. Adityan and some Congress politicians are said to be backing Randhir Singh.
The real show of strength will be when the SGBM meets to grant the affiliation to a handful of national federations like the ice hockey, ice skating and luge.
Both factions claimed majority, but it appears a sizable number of national federations still seem to be backing Kalmadi, though he has decided to quit sports administration.
“Suresh has taken care of his support base for 16 years and most of them still swear by him,” said a veteran sports administrator unwilling to be named.
The SGBM will perforce have to give affiliation to some of the units, as directed by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), to make sure the national sports federations whose disciplines are part of the Olympic Games have a majority in the electoral college.
The SGBM might discuss the IOC Ethics Committee directive to suspend Kalmadi, IOA secretary-general Lalit Bhanot and former Badminton Association of India president V.K. Verma for their involvement in the alleged corruption cases in the the conduct of the Commonwealth Games and also bar them from contesting IOA election.
Kalmadi has already announced that he would not seek re-election while Verma is no longer part of the IOA after quitting BAI. Bhanot is expected to attend the meeting and plead his case.