Quraishi resigns, IOA elections likely to be postponed

The much-awaited Indian Olympic Association's election took a dramatic twist today with the chairman of the election committee, S Y Quraishi resigning from the post, leading to a likely postponement of the controversial polls barely a week before the scheduled date.

Quraishi, a former chief election commissioner, resigned from the post saying his conscience did not allow him to continue after the apex sports body backtracked on its commitment.
The IOA had formed the three-member committee to oversee the three-time postponed elections but Quraishi's resignation has forced the sports body to find a replacement for him.

As a result, the process of scrutiny of nominations for the IOA, which was scheduled for today, has been postponed by the Returning Officer.

Returning Officer Chief Justice (Retd) V K Bali has said that scrutiny process will only start after the appointment of the new Chairman/Member of the election commission.

This has created a very piquant situation as it is going to have an impact on the schedule of the elections which are slated for November 25. It appears unlikely that it would be held on schedule since the entire process has been delayed.

In his resignation letter, Quraishi said, "I appreciate that IOA has appointed an independent committee for the election. But I can't continue because IOA had accepted govt's sports guidelines but later doesn't want to follow it."

"I have been advocating the government sports guidelines right from my tenure as sports secretary. Now IOA is not following the guidelines, and my conscience doesn't allow me to continue. It will be a conflict of interest to continue in the committee," Quraishi wrote.

The government sports guidelines puts a restriction on contestants' age and tenure of office-bearers. But the International Olympic Committee (IOC) had yesterday made it clear that the elections should be held as per the Olympic charter and not the government's sports code.