Setback for Ramachandran as IOA AGM shifted from Chennai

The council decided to shift the venue of the meeting to be held on December 14 to New Delhi at the emergent meeting called by IOA secretary Rajeev Mehta. Ramachandran did not attend the emergent Executive Council meeting after 19 of the 27 members of the top decision making body demanded it. In Ramachandran’s absence, senior vice president Virendra Nanavati chaired the meeting.

Twenty-one of the 27 executive council members attended Tuesday’s meeting while vice-president Anurag Thakur expressed inability to attend it as he was busy with assembly elections in Himachal Pradesh.

Ramachandran has already called a meeting of executive council in Chennai on November 9. The AGM on December 14 in Chennai is to elect the new office bearers of the IOA, including the president and secretary general. “The decision taken today will be ratified at the Executive Council meeting called by the president on November 9 in Chennai,” Mehta said. Raamachandran was not available for comment.

Ramachandran seems to lose support in the council by the day. He now faces the prospect of being out-voted by his rivals at his home turf in the IOA power struggle as all the members who attended the meeting on Tuesday decided to be present in the meeting called by him on November 9.

“The executive council today decided to hold the AGM in Delhi instead of  Chennai on December 14. We have also named the election commission and returning officer to conduct the elections on December 14 during this AGM. All of them are the same as those who conducted the elections in February 2014,” vice-president Tarlochan Singh said. 

Asked if it is legal to hold an executive council meeting on the demand of the members and not by the president, Tarlochan said, “Under the IOA Constitution, the Executive Council can also call a meeting. If the majority of members want a meeting, the president or the secretary general will have to call it. There is overwhelming majority, 19 out of 27 wanted this meeting and 21 turned up. This is totally legal. The president should have been graceful enough and attend this meeting. But unfortunately, he chose not to attend this. Neither he called the meeting nor attended it.” 

The meeting also decided to reject the arbitrators appointed by Ramachandran in the factional feud in the Andhra Pradesh Olympic Association. Another vice-president RK Anand lashed out at Ramachandran for creating unnecessary trouble despite being ineligible to contest elections as per the age limit of 70. “Ramachandran is 69 and I think he will be 70 sometime in August next year. He is not eligible to contest for the post of president,” Anand said.