CHENNAI: Declared elected by the returning officer, All India Chess Federation (AICF) secretary Bharat Singh Chauhan has called a general body meeting in Ahmedabad on February 27. Since there are just five office-bearers at the moment, the first task of the new regime will be to fill up the remaining 10 spots. The meeting in Ahmedabad will decide how to go about it.
Nominations rejected for not following the national sports code, the faction headed by former president PR Venketrama Raja has filed an appeal at Madras High Court. A verdict is expected on Thursday. “We think the returning officer’s decision to cancel our nominations was erroneous. Let’s see what the court says,” said a member of the Raja group.
Relieved by the returning officer’s order which made sure that he got elected unopposed, Chauhan said it’s not final whether elections will be held for the 10 vacant posts. “We have to study the constitution, sports code and other relevant documents. At this stage, it’s not clear if elections will be required or candidates can be nominated to these posts.”
Other than Chauhan, office-bearers who got elected without elections are Ajay Patel (president), Naresh Sharma (treasurer), M Arun Singh (joint-secretary) and Vipnesh Bharadwaj (vice-president). The posts to be filled are of five joint-secretaries and five vice-presidents.