Ajay is new AICF President, Chauhan is Secretary: Returning Officer Kalifulla

Ajay Patel has been elected as President, Bharat Singh Chauhan as Secretary, Naresh Sharma as Treasurer, M Arun Singh as Joint-Secretary and Vipnesh Bharadwaj as Vice-President, said former Supreme Court judge Justice FMI Kalifulla, who is the Returning Officer for the AICF elections.

AICF is split into two camps, one headed by former President PR Venketrama Raja and the other by Chauhan. Those elected belong to the Chauhan faction. In his three-page order, Kalifulla said the proposed election scheduled on February 23 in Hyderabad cannot take place. “As the election process has concluded, all original, relevant files will be forwarded to the Registry of the High Court, Madras, on February 12,” he said. However, the opposing camp is still hopeful. Sources in the Raja camp said the final outcome of the election will be decided by the Madras High Court.

Earlier in the day, Raja and others had approached the Madras High Court, seeking relief against the rejection of their nominations by the Returning Officer. Kalifulla had last Sunday rejected the nomination forms of 23 contestants, including that of Raja and several others, as they did not file their nominations in person. The high court had appointed Kalifulla as the Returning Officer to conduct the elections after the two factions had approached it.