PT Usha set to become IOA President

Former Indian athlete PT Usha is set to become the president of the Indian Olympic Association (IOA). Usha is the lone candidate for the post and will become the first woman president of the IOA following the elections, which will be held on December 10, 2022. She will also be the first Olympian to hold the post, while also becoming the first sportsperson to have represented India to become the IOA President since Maharaja Yadavindra Singh, a former cricketer who held the post between 1938 and 1960. 

Usha was selected as one of the eight Sportspersons of Outstanding Merit (SOM) by the Athletes Commission of IOA, which had made her an electoral college member. Usha, a multiple Asian Games medallist, also known for her heroic fourth-place finish in the 400m hurdles final at the 1984 Olympics, filed her nomination for the role on November 27. 

Apart from Usha, Ajay Patel, Chairman of the Gujarat State Cooperative Bank and the Ahmedabad District Co-Operative Bank, is set to become the Senior Vice-President after being the only candidate for the post. Patel currently also serves as the President of the Gujarat State Rifle Association. Current Indian Weightlifting Federation (IWF) President Sahdev Yadav will also be elected as the Treasurer after being the only candidate. All India Football Federation (AIFF) President Kalyan Chaubey will take up the post of male Joint Secretary.

Olympian Gangan Narang is the only candidate for the post of male Vice-President, while there will be a contest between Rajlaxmi Singh Deo and Alaknanda Ashok for the post of female Vice-President. Alaknanda Ashok, Shalini Thakur Chawla and Suman Kaushik will contest for the post of female Joint-Secretary. Olympic medallist Yogeshwar Dutta and Dola Banerjee are all set to be announced as the male and female representatives, respectively, of the eight SOMs in the Executive Council as well. 

The Executive Council, which has four spots yet to be filled, will see twelve candidates filing their nominations. These twelve candidates are as follows: Shiva Keshavan, Cyrus Poncha, Lt Gen Harpal Singh, Bhupender Singh Bajwa, Rohit Rajpal, Amitabh Sharma, Shalini Thakur Chawla, Prashant Khushwaha, Vitthal Shirgaonkar, Parminder Singh Dhindsa, Digvijay Chautala and Harjinder Singh.