Thaindian News

Chennai, June 12 (IANS) V.K. Verma’s reign as the president of the Badminton Association of India (BAI) is likely to continue as he is expected to be re-elected at Sunday’s annual general meeting (AGM) here.

The only point of interest is whether former India cricket captain Mohd. Azharuddin would contest against him at all and if so, it will expose the division within the BAI as he would have to be proposed and seconded by two delegates attending the AGM.

Even if there is a division, it is because of government controlled units which have been instructed to back Azharuddin.

Traditionally, Indian sports federations tend to avoid a contest for the key posts in a bid to project an unified face, and by all accounts, the BAI would be happier should Verma is re-elected unanimously.

Verma Saturday presented a very confident picture hinting that Azharuddin was unlikely to garner much support from among the 34 delegates who have a total of 65 votes among them.

In a major boost for Verma, the Hyderabad High Court threw out Azharuddin’s plea for a stay order on the elections that will now go ahead as scheduled.

BAI vice-president Ashok Bajaj opined that Verma enjoyed popularity among the affiliated units following inflow of revenue into the federation’s coffers. So much so that Verma even declared that the BAI would now be financially independent of the government and thus outside the purview of the guidelines that require him to step down having completed over two terms.

“Verma has sufficient backing within the BAI and I feel that Azharuddin, if he contests, will not get much support,” insisted Bajaj, who felt that Azharuddin’s credentials, tarnished by the life ban in the wake of match-fixing allegations, put a question mark on his credibility.

On the eve of the AGM, the re-election was the only topic of interest that was doing rounds as otherwise, the proceedings are expected to be routine.

The ministry has appointed Deepika Kacchal to attend the AGM as the government observer.