PT Usha nominated by Ice Hockey Association as IOA General Body representative, keeping re-election bid alive

PT Usha was nominated by the Ice Hockey Association of India on Thursday as one of its two representatives to the Indian Olympic Association General Body, a development that keeps her IOA re-election bid alive days after she lost the Sportspersons of Merit (SOMs) polls.

The IHAI named Usha as its female representative while its secretary Harjinder Singh was listed as the male member. Electoral Officer Sanjay Kumar Srivastava had asked each of the 30 National Sports Federations entitled to vote to nominate one male and one female representative to the General Body before the Thursday 3pm deadline. The Electoral Officer’s notification included a membership requirement for nominees; it is not clear whether Usha would satisfy that condition. "Each representative shall be a member of the concerned NSF Member, a citizen of India, less than 70 years of age, a person of good standing, sound judgment and independent mind with knowledge of and belief in Olympic principles," the notification said.

Submission of the objections to the provisional electoral college will be done on Friday. Scrutiny, verification and disposal of the objections will be done on Saturday before the final electoral roll is published on Sunday. Those procedural steps precede the IOA Executive Council polls scheduled for December 5.

The electoral college for the December 5 Executive Council election will comprise 60 members nominated by NSFs, eight SOMs already elected, two representatives from the Athletes' Commission who have been picked, and the International Olympic Committee member in India, making a 71-strong body. The SOMs and all 60 members nominated by the NSFs are eligible to stand as candidates for the new Executive Council.

Prominent figures nominated by their NSFs include Adille Sumariwalla (athletics), Rajeev Mehta (fencing), Rahul Bose (rugby), Virender Sachdeva (archery), Kalyan Chaubey (football), Sahdev Yadav (weightlifting), Ajay Patel (shooting), Sanjay Singh (wrestling), Bhupinder Singh Bajwa (wushu) and Bhola Nath Singh (hockey). At least seven members of the outgoing Executive Council were among those nominated by their respective federations.

Adille Sumariwalla is also talked about as one of the contenders for the top job of the IOA, along with SOMs Gagan Narang and Saina Nehwal. Those names have emerged in discussions about candidates for the presidency ahead of the December 5 vote.

The final electoral roll will be published on Sunday after objection scrutiny, setting the electorate for the IOA Executive Council polls on December 5, when the nominated members and elected SOMs may stand as candidates.