Nominations usually reveal a story: the names, the proposers, the seconders, the set of individuals supporting certain persons. On a closer look, a pattern can emerge as well. The draft list of nomination for Sportspersons of Outstanding Merit (SOM) elections is out and as expected there are heavyweights that would contest the election.
The number of nominations filed is quite large, by SOMs standard, which even the Indian Olympic Association election’s Returning Officer Sanjay K Srivastava acknowledged as much. “It is a good number and the list will be finalized after scrutiny,” he told this daily.
The RO was happy that the number was 27 and there is a reason for that. “I am happy. I was worried we might get 40 nominations. If 40 nominations came in, how would the election work? Everyone would just vote for themselves,” he said. Another heartening fact is that the roster has names from all over the country including Nagaland and Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The voting will be online and the RO has formulated a watertight plan for free and fair election; no picture of their screens, verification codes and more to be in place. The final list of nomination would be published on November 5 and withdrawals can be done until November 7. Election is on November 9.
Going back to the nominations, what seems interesting but not a surprise is that current president of the IOA, PT Usha’s, name is on the list. She has two persons proposing and seconding her – Radhika A (table tennis) and Lijo David Thottan (athletics).
Radhika also seconded Beijing Olympic medallist Vijender Singh’s name proposed by London Olympic medallist Yogeshwar Dutt, a prominent BJP member. Vijender too joined BJP. London Olympic medallist Gagan Narang’s name was proposed by former India archers Rahul Banerjee and Dola Banerjee, who run a foundation together in Kolkata. IOA vice president Gagan's name was also doing the rounds for IOA's top post.
Dola was one of the IOA executive committee members not supporting Usha when the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) was appointed. She was not alone, most of the EC members were against it and until the sports ministry intervened, the protest within the EC went on for more than a year. Other members who were part of this group objecting to the appointment and are part of the SOMs nominations are Dutt and Narang.
Usha also proposed one name and seconded another in male and female category – Ashwini Nachappa and Kamlesh Mehta. The two too were involved in the same activity of proposing and seconding names as well. What seemed the most intriguing is the nomination of Narang whose name was not proposed or seconded by any shooters but two archers – Rahul and Dola. Dutt and Gagan proposed and seconded Dola’s name. Going by the group, the numbers don’t seem to be overwhelming as of now.
On the other hand, Beijing Olympic gold medallist Abhinav Bindra, had been reluctant to contest elections because of personal reasons has seconded India shooter-turned-coach Mansher Singh’s name (proposer another former India shooter Moraad Ali Khan). Former world champion Ronjan Sodhi’s name was proposed by Mehta and Nachappa. If the group is an indication, it has quite a few numbers in it. Like former Athletics Federation of India (AFI) president Adille Sumariwalla and 2003 World championships medallist Anju Bobby George too seem to be having backing of athletes from AFI.
At least four distinctive groups, sport-wise, have emerged – athletics, shooting, badminton and hockey, where SOMs nominated each other. There are around 27 names from athletics in SOMs, eight each from hockey and badminton, while shooting has about seven names. Saina Nehwal, a BJP leader, name was proposed by B Sumeeth Reddy and seconded by B Sai Praneeth. According to the rules, one person can propose only one candidate in male and female categories. The last name in the list will automatically be removed because there is only one proposer. Rani Rampal from hockey who could find herself in a strong position as well.
AC and SOM voting pattern
The RO also spoke about the way votes will be cast on November 9. He said that 80 SOMs will vote for 8 candidates (4 males and 4 females). The candidate list will be displayed in front of them, and they can choose four males and four females. Since it is an online voting, the fifth option won't be entered because the system would block it.
Srivastava, the former election commission officer of Delhi and Chandigarh, said that for online monitoring, “we have uploaded the Athlete Commission SOMs' election details onto the website.”
“In this system, all candidates will receive a message on their mobile phones. When they join via that message link, the agency we hired will first verify their photo.” The RO’s office has already taken clean photographs of everyone in advance to ensure physical and photo verification. After checking all details, the system will send a verification code (token/OTP) simultaneously to their email, WhatsApp, and SMS. “They can view it from anywhere and confirm it. Then, the system will show them the 8 names (4 females, 4 males), and the process starts. Once completed, a "Thank You" message appears, and the process closes.”
Voting is exclusively for athletes and the RO's office holds the code, so only they can open it. “It is a completely fair process, and participants are not allowed to take photographs of their screens as people often try to take photos to show someone else that 'I voted for you," but taking photographs or proxy voting is strictly prohibited. We have issued clear guidelines regarding this on the website (AC voting first).”
Though there have been representations, the RO is quite pleased with the election process so far. He also revealed that there has been one withdrawal from AC’s list of 12. There are 10 ACs posts and one more withdrawal means there might not be an election.
There is one point in the constitution that the IOA is trying to resolve. The SOMs rules and this particular point 3.7 from the newly-ratified IOA constitution varies regarding selection process of the SOMs. The old constitution had said that SOMs would be selected by the AC, like during the 2022 election. But this time the election was done among the 80 SOMs whose names were shortlisted as per tiered system. It is understood that the IOA is sorting this out.
