CHENNAI: In a late twist, chief national coach Pullela Gopichand filed his nomination for the post of vice president while Sanjay Mishra is set to be the next general secretary of the Badminton Association of India (BAI). On the last day for the nominations, Gopichand and Mishra filed their candidatures. The list will be made final next week.
Though all of the other nominations except for the president's post were filed on Thursday, no name was filed for the post of general secretary. It was only on Friday that the names were finalised — Gopichand as vice president and Mishra, who works closely with Gopichand as the junior national coach and is currently an executive council member, as general secretary.
There are quite a few theories floating around but the serious one seemed to be the constitution bye-laws that don't allow a person who is not part of the previous executive council to contest for the post of general secretary. The new constitution amended in February this year says, "The honorary general secretary shall be elected by the council amongst its members and provided that only outgoing office-bearers (president, secretary and treasurer) or the members of the outgoing Executive Committee shall be eligible to contest for the post of general secretary." The Delhi High Court is hearing a matter on the restrictive clause of the Indian Olympic Association and how it violates the sports code.
Gopichand is also the chief national coach and whether he would continue is not known as of now. Perhaps, as a VP, he could still continue.
The BAI will have some kind of change. Ajay Singhania, the current general secretary, has been nominated for the post of vice president. BAI president Himanta Biswa Sarma was the only office bearer to have filed his nomination on the first day — March 9. Others who filed on Thursday are Arun Lakhani for the post of treasurer in place of former Union minister Anbumani Ramadoss, who has filed for VP post. Lakhani is right now a VP. Omar Rashid is nominated for the post of joint secretary and will be a new face in the executive council. There are 11 vice presidents and according to the constitution, 12 is the maximum number. Similarly, BAI has seven joint secretaries with a cap of eight.