Boxing India elections - AIBA asks IOA to stay away

JAIPUR: With just a couple of days to go for the Boxing India elections, the International Boxing Association (AIBA) has made it clear that it wouldn't tolerate any interference from the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) when the BI elections are held in Mumbai on Thursday .
Referring to the Olympic Charter, the IOA president N Ramachandran had written to the AIBA president Dr Ching-Kuo Wu requesting him to entrust the responsibility of conducting the BI elections to IOA, since it governs the sporting units in the country .But in a strong reply to But in a strong reply to the Indian Olympic body, the AIBA has made it clear that it wouldn't allow the IOA to have much say in the BI polls."The elections are being conducted keeping all the guidelines in mind.Despite being the national federation, the IOA has misinterpreted the Olympic Charter, which the AIBA doesn't approve of," the world boxing body specified in the letter.
Though IOA officials remained tightlipped, the AIBA announced that the election process will now be conducted by its observer Kishen Narsi, along with legal department official Cliodhna Guy. "The world body wasn' happy with regular interference by the IOA. But in order to conduct a free and fair election, the AIBA had even invited an IOA observer for the elec tions, which the Olympic body turned down," a source in the AIBA told TOI.
After the elections are conducted the observer will submit his report to the AIBA, and only after analyzing al the areas, the AIBA will decide on whether Boxing India will be given permanent recognition. "It's still a long process. This time, the AIBA i not ready to take things easy , and ou job is to ensure there's no discrepancy in the process," the source added Meanwhile, the sports ministry is yet to decide on whether to send a government observer for the elections. "We still haven't taken a final call. We are in consultation with our legal counsels," Union sports secretary Ajit Sharan said.
Narsi steps down from committee
After giving last week's ad-hoc committee meeting a miss, AIBA observer Kishen Narsi, on Tuesday, resigned from the six-member committee which was formed by the IOA to look after the sport in absence of a permanent federation.