JOIN USRao Inderjit Singh, who will stand for the president’s post, and his team will fight against former president R Rathan Singh -- who will stand for the secretary general’s post -- and Sultan Ahmed who will contest for the president’s seat.
The polls are being held despite a sports ministry advisory against it, citing that the body has been derecognised by the International Paralympic Committee itself. The sports ministry also found discrepancies in the electoral list.
Stating that it was necessary for someone to dethrone the current management that has run PCI for years, Inderjit Singh said: “The PCI was de-recognised because the previous management did not follow the sports ministry’s guidelines. What I hope to do is win the elections tomorrow and put everything back in order.
“I know that contesting for elections of a de-recognised institution might sound strange. But we want to win this and hold a proper election in Delhi, following all the minsitry guidelines.
“The Ministry has asked that the elections must be held outside Karnataka for it to be legitimate. So by contesting here tomorrow, we will bring forward a proposal for the elections to be held properly with a Government apppointed observer in New Delhi.
“We see this election and beating the current management as the first step towards being a legitimate body,” he added during a press conference here. The president of the Haryana Paralympic Association also admitted that it was an interim measure but stressed its importance to avoid the athletes getting affected.
“Winning it will be a stop-gap arrangement to at least propose athletes names for the London Olympics. Because the deadline for that is December 31, so we don’t have much time,” Inderjit Singh said. “The worst thing that can happen is that the athletes get affected and lose a chance to participate in the Olympics,” the former Indian shooter added.
Meanwhile, Rathan Singh rejected the criticism against his panel by saying that they have done nothing wrong.
“We are holding this elections as per our guidelines. From 1992 to 2005, we were a completey independent body. It’s only after that we became recognised by the government.
“The discrepancies that the government has found are not correct. We gave affiliation to several State bodies and independent bodies. It is because of this that there were differences between the member list given in 2009 and 2011,” Rathan Singh said.
“The government has told us to conduct the election and only then come to us. The deadline was before July 31, which is why we are holding it tomorrow,” he added.