BFI faction declares majority support to oust Ajay Singh, meets MoS Raksha Khadse

A faction of the Boxing Federation of India, seeking the removal of president Ajay Singh and demanding the support of 27 state units, met Sports Minister Raksha Khadse on Wednesday and sought his intervention over alleged governance failures in the federation.

Eight of the 13 members of the BFI’s executive committee, including general secretary Pramod Kumar, senior vice-presidents Rajesh Bhandari and Leonard D’Gama, treasurer Pon Baskaran and joint secretaries Teli Khai and Swapan Banerjee, met in the national capital.

Madhya Pradesh’s Digvijay Singh and Assam’s Hemanta Kalita, who served as treasurer and secretary during Singh’s previous tenure, were among representatives of 27 state units present in a show of force against Singh, who was re-elected for a third term last year.

Representatives from Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Goa, Jammu and Kashmir, Odisha and Jharkhand were also present.

The group submitted a memorandum to the Sports Ministry, the Indian Olympic Association and World Boxing President Gennady Golovkin.

“We have just met the sports minister and submitted our memorandum. We will also go to the IOA. We want to make them aware of the situation,” Bhandari said.

The gathering was originally intended to be a special general meeting (SGM) called by Kumar to move a motion of no confidence against Singh.

However, the Punjab and Haryana High Court on Tuesday ordered that the meeting be adjourned till the next hearing on November 13.

“How long can we continue in court? Ajay Singh has kept us waiting for two years (as cases related to the validity of the new constitution are still pending),” Bhandari said.

“We don’t have the funds to litigate. Every time an official in the boxing federation challenged Ajay Singh’s authority, he was either suspended or served with a show-cause notice. We may have to sit in Jantar Mantar to protest,” he added.

“We were not able to hold the meeting today for the purpose for which it was called. We cannot challenge the court but we thought we will meet again and discuss the matters,” Bhandari said.

The memorandum accused Singh of concentrating power in his hands, denouncing elected office holders and undermining democratic processes in the federation.

It also alleged that the BFI constitution was revised without adequate scrutiny and claimed that state representatives were silenced and denied the opportunity to speak during an online meeting about the proposed changes on 27 August.

Representatives of state departments expressed concern about the lack of development at the local level and a clear calendar of competitions.

“There are no grassroots development plans and no competitions. We are not getting a calendar with an overview of competitions,” Bhandari claimed.

“It is not clear when the national championships will be held, and when they are held, the announcement comes just 20 days before the tournament.”

The faction also alleged that the technical officials had not been paid travel and daily allowances for several years.

“There is no development of coaches, umpires and umpires. Technical officials who run domestic tournaments have not been paid TA/DA for the last five to six years,” Bhandari said.

“The medalists at the national championship did not receive the monetary rewards they were promised,” he claimed.

Later that day, the BFI said in an official statement that 21 of its 35 “authorized state units” participated in the two-day Mission Olympic Podium meeting in Bagdogra, West Bengal.

“Twenty-one of the 35 authorized state units of the Boxing Federation of India participated in a two-day ‘Mission Olympic Podium’ meeting here, bringing together most of its state units around Indian boxing’s Olympic ambitions and an athlete-first approach,” said a press release.

– The end