Narinder Batra formally took over as the new president of the Indian Olympic Association after winning elections at the Annual General Meeting here on Thursday.
Batra received 143 of the 160 votes polled to elect the office-bearers for the next period of four years from 2018-22 while his rival Anil Khanna, honorary life president of the All India Tennis Federation, got 13. Handball Federation of India's Anandeshwar Pandey was elected as the treasurer after Rakesh Gupta withdrew and Mukesh Kumar of Judo Federation of India was rendered ineligible. Rajeev Mehta was re-elected unopposed as the secretary-general while R. K. Anand won to the lone senior vice-president post defeating kabaddi federation's Janardhan Gahlot.
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Not 100 percent
Khanna, who had already announced his decision to withdraw from the race but did so after the last date of withdrawals - necessitating elections as insisted by the election commission - was among the first to congratulate Batra, also the International Hockey federation president, for his victory. Interestingly, his decision meant election to the president's post was expected to be unanimous but Khanna still polled 13 votes, indicating that there were some who backed him despite knowing there was no chance of a victory.
Five federations – judo, gymnastics, taekwondo, winter games and archery – were disqualified from participating either because of recognition issues for their respective NSFs or the presence of a court-appointed administrator for the same. Besides, Services Sports Control Board (SSCB) was also debarred because of government rules that allow government bodies to be part of the IOA but without voting rights.
- The new IOA office-bearers: President: Dr. Narinder Dhruv Batra;
- Senior vice-president: R.K. Anand; secretary-general: Rajeev Mehta;
- Treasurer: Anandeshwar Pandey
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