NEW DELHI: Finally, light at the end of the tunnel for the embattled Archery Association of India (AAI). Delhi High Court-appointed returning officer PK Tripathi has come out with the election notice as well as the electoral roll. Elections will be held on January 18 at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in the national capital. All the nomination forms for elections to the post of office bearers will have to be submitted before the deadline of January 6.
Elections will be held for the post of president, senior vice-president, vice-presidents (8), secretary, joint secretaries (7), and treasurer. Out of 31 state associations, it was decided by the court that 26 were eligible to send two representatives for the elections.
Bihar, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir, and Uttar Pradesh were struck off the electoral college. Nagaland was given extra time as their papers did not reach here on time but it seems they will most likely not be a part of the electoral procedure. Twenty-five states and their two representatives have been finalized. According to sources, like the previous election held in Delhi and Chandigarh, the list of candidates is expected to remain the same.
A few vice-presidential posts are going unopposed but nothing has been confirmed as yet. Former president BVP Rao is a representative of Archery Association of Assam while Delhi faction president and Union Minister Arjun Munda is from the Jharkhand Archery Association.
“Archery has been suffering for a long time now and with this notice, it seems the dark days are finally going to get over. Hopefully, the new year brings joy to both the sport and all the archers,” a source close to the Transitory Committee, in charge of running AAI affairs till the elections, told this daily.
The notice has been forwarded to both the Sports Ministry and the IOA, who will now have to send their observers. This is a huge boost for the federation after it was suspended by the World Archery as a result of which Indian archers had to participate under the WA flag at the recently concluded Asian Championships.