PT Usha keeps IOA’s re-election hopes alive with Ice Hockey Association nomination

Indian Olympic Association (IOA) president PT Usha kept her re-election bid alive as she was nominated as one of its two representatives to the general body by the Ice Hockey Association of India (IHAI) on Thursday, just days after she lost the Sportspersons of Merit (SOM) polls.

Usha was nominated as the female representative of the National Ice Hockey Federation, with secretary Harjinder Singh as the male member.

Each of the 30 National Sports Federations (NSFs) eligible to vote in the IOA elections has been asked by Electoral Officer Sanjay Kumar Srivastava to nominate one male and one female representative for the General by Thursday’s 3pm deadline.

In the notification issued on Monday by the EO, there is a clause that the nominated member should be a member of NSF. It is not clear whether Usha – an athletics legend – would meet the requirement.

“Each representative must be a member of the relevant NSF member, a citizen of India, below 70 years of age, a person of good standing, sound judgment and independent mind with knowledge of and belief in the Olympic principles,” reads one of the requirements.

Objections to the provisional electoral college will be made on Friday. Scrutiny, verification and removal of objections will be done on Saturday before the publication of the final voter list on Sunday.

60 members from the NSF, eight already elected SOMs, two representatives from the Athletes’ Commission – also already elected – and a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) India will form the 71-member electoral college for the IOA Executive Council polls to be held on December 5.

SOM and all 60 NSF-nominated members can also run for the new Executive Board.

Celebrities who have been nominated as NSF representatives include Adille Sumariwalla (athletics), Rajeev Mehta (fencing), Rahul Bose (rugby), Virender Sachdeva (archery), Kalyan Chaubey (football), Sahdev Yadav (weightlifting), Ajay Patel (shooting), Singlinghwrest (Singlinghw Sanjay) (wushu) and Bhola Nath Singh (hockey).

Among those nominated by their respective NSFs to the IOA General Body were also at least seven members of the outgoing Executive Board.

Sumariwalla is also being talked about as one of the contenders for the top IOA post along with SOM Gagan Narang and Saina Nehwal.

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