CHENNAI : Election dates are still awaiting approval from the Madras High Court, but the two factions of members in the All India Chess Federation (AICF) have announced own lists of voters nonetheless. There are differences in the two electoral colleges and unless sorted, these are likely to lead to further complications and fresh judicial intervention.
The group headed by president PR Venketrama Raja has called for elections in Chennai on February 10. The bunch led by secretary Bharat Singh Chauhan want it in Ahmedabad on February 9. Matters have reached the court and a verdict is expected on Tuesday.
The warring sides have gone ahead with releasing the electoral college. The AICF is constituted by 33 state associations, who have two votes each. While the list released by the Raja group has named voters from 19 associations, the one put up by the Chauhan faction has 22. There were claims from both sides that this shows who the favourite is. However, not much should be read into the differences in numbers at this moment. Eight states — Jharkhand, Himachal, Odisha, Punjab, Telangana, UP, Rajasthan, Bengal — feature on both lists. Among these, Odisha, Telangana and UP have submitted the same sets of names to the two factions. So it’s not clear which group they actually support.
A bigger complication comes after this. The names of voters from Himachal, Punjab, Rajasthan and Bengal are different in the two lists. For Jharkhand, one person’s name is present on both lists, while the second name is different. If all of them turn up and claim to be authorised voters, it may again have to be decided by a court who the valid voters are.
Moreover, the units of Himachal and Manipur are under ad-hoc committees. AICF veterans say that associations not run by elected office-bearers are not eligible to vote. However, Himachal is present in both lists and representatives of Manipur feature among the list released by the secretary.
The Bengal association is on the two lists with different sets of names. Elections in this unit were scheduled for January 25, but were not held. Under the circumstances, who should represent Bengal is likely to become another thorny issue once the AICF election dates are out. The more one goes into it, the more appeals in court look imminent.
