NEW DELHI: Athletics Federation of India (AFI) chief Adille Sumariwala, on Saturday declared himself as the new president of the Indian Olympic Association (IOA), even as senior vice-president, Anil Khanna, has been discharging the duties of the chief post a Delhi High Court order.
Sumariwala, a former sprinter, even sent a communication to International Olympic Committee's (IOC) president Thomas Bach saying that "the members of the IOA's Executive Council have co-opted him as president of the IOA''.
However, there is no executive council in the IOA as of now after the four-year tenure of the Narinder Dhruv Batra-led EC expired on December 14, 2021 following the Olympic body's failure to hold its long-pending electoral process to elect a new set of office-bearers.
Also, Khanna was appointed as the IOA's interim president on June 24 by the High Court after a vacation bench ordered Batra to stop discharging duties as IOA president following a contempt case filed by former hockey player Aslam Sher Khan.
"The majority members of the IOA executive committee vide letters dated July 2022 have co-opted the undersigned to be the president of the IOA till such time as fresh elections to the Executive Council of the IOA are held," wrote Sumariwala on the official IOA's letterhead to Bach.
Sources in the opposition camp, led by Khanna and secretary general Rajeev Mehta, informed TOI that the letter was nothing but an attempt by Sumariwala & Co to invite a ban from the IOC owing to factional infighting within the IOA. "This letter holds no significance. Khanna has been duly appointed by the honourable court and he will continue to discharge his duties as the IOA president. The EC has not been there since December last, so the voting itself becomes null and void."
