SY Quraishi resigns, IOA election thrown into jeopardy

NEW DELHI: The much-anticipated Indian Olympic Association's election took a dramatic twist today with the chairman of the election committee, S Y Quraishi resigning from the post, saying his conscience did not allow him to continue after the apex sports body backtracked on its commitment.

The resignation of Quraishi, a former chief election commissioner, came barely a week before the high-profile November 25 election which has now been thrown into jeopardy.

The IOA had formed the three-member committee to oversee the election but Quraishi's resignation has thrown an element of uncertainty on the panel which has now been reduced to a two-member committee.

In his resignation letter, Quraishi said, "I appreciate that IOA has appointed an independent committee for the election. But I can't continue because IOA had accepted govt's sports guidelines but later doesn't want to follow it."

"I have been advocating the government sports guidelines right from my tenure as sports secretary. Now IOA is not following the guidelines, and my conscience doesn't allow me to continue. It will be a conflict of interest to continue in the committee," Quraishi wrote.

The other two members of the committee are retired chief justice of Kerala High Court, VK Bali and retired Justice of Delhi High Court, JD Kapur.

The government sports guidelines puts a restriction on contestants' age and tenure of office-bearers. But the International Olympic Committee ( IOC) had yesterday made it clear that the elections should be held as per the Olympic charter and not the government's sports code.

IOA's acting president V K Malhotra confirmed that he has received Quraishi's resignation letter and said that IOA has not backtracked on its commitment.

"The IOA's stand has been very clear. We have always said that the government guidelines are illegal and unconstitutional but we were forced to adhere to it by the High Court," Malhotra told PTI.