By Venkatachari Jagannathan
Chennai, In a major blow for the All India Chess Federation’s (AICF) President P.R.Venketrama Raja’s camp, the chess body election’s returning officer, retired Supreme Court Justice Fakkir Mohamed Ibrahim Kallifula, has rejected the nominations of Raja and several others.
Kallifula has accepted as valid nominations for only five persons out of the total 15 who had filed. All the five belong to AICF Secretary Bharat Singh Chauhan/Ajay H Patel camp.
“It seems there will be no election. The five contestants whose nominations were found valid nominations of the five contestants that have been accepted as valid will be elected unopposed,” apex court advocate Sanjay K. Chadha told IANS on Sunday.
Chadha, who represents Patel who is contesting for the post of AICF President and Chauhan who is standing for reelection, said that the five nominations that were accepted were that of Patel, Chauhan, Naresh Sharma (contesting for Treasurer post), M.Arun Singh (Joint Secretary) and Vipnesh Bharadwaj (Vice President).
“The Returning Officer rejected the nominations of others on couple of grounds which include violations of the National Sports Code 2011 like not filing the nomination in person, not being a member of a state chess association and others,” he said.
According to Chadha, as per the National Sports Code, the five people have to be declared as elected unopposed.
“As regards the elections of the other posts, the new office bearers may call for polls after assuming office,” he added.
“All the five of us filed our nominations in person,” Chauhan told IANS.
Meanwhile, members of the Raja camp said they will seek the judiciary’s intervention
“We are moving the court on Monday against the decision. As regards the contestants, only five nominations have been accepted,” FIDE zone 3.7 President R.M. Dongre, a former Maharashtra state player, told IANS.
FIDE is the global chess body and Dongre, who belongs to the Raja camp, will be contesting for the AICF Secretary post.
When queried, Chadha said as per the National Sports Code, the decision of the Returning Officer could be challenged in the court only after the completion of the poll process with an election petition.
The AICF has split into two factions — one led by President Raja and the other by Secretary Chauhan.
(Venkatachari Jagannathan can be contacted at [email protected])
