Thaindian News

New Delhi, Aug 5 (IANS) Interim president Vidya Stokes was Thursday declared Hockey India (HI) president defeating former India captain and Olympian Pargat Singh in elections held here Wednesday.
The 83-year-old Stokes, who was also the president of the erstwhile Indian Women’s Hockey Federation (IWHF), won 41-21 against Pargat, who was the secretary general of Hockey Punjab.

Narinder Batra, who was the interim secretary general, was also elected as the secretary general. He defeated Arunachal Pradesh’s Gunjum Haider 44-18. Mushtaque Ahmed was elected the treasurer defeating Haider 45-17.

The HI elections were postponed thrice and last week got the green signal after the Supreme Court lifted the stay order of Bombay and Delhi high courts.

Stokes, a career politician, defied government directives on age limit to win the elections.

A dejected Pargat said he will continue his fight against the system.

“It is a fight against the system. I will take the result of the election in true sportsman spirit. It is a democratic setup. I will continue to work to improve the level of hockey in this country,” he said.

Pargat also said that the ruling group doesn’t think about the welfare of the national sport.

“I have no issues but these people don’t think about the welfare of hockey. They only think about groupism. I challenged it and it’s only the beginning. I wanted to take hockey out of this mess. The game should flourish,” he said.