Jaspal Singh Kandhari has been unanimously elected President of the Gymnastics Federation of India (GFI). And Dr B S Ghuman of Punjab Gymnastics Association has been elected as General Secretary. This was disclosed by Returning Officer Justice R S Mongia, former Chief Justice of the Guwahati High Court, here today after completion of the election process.
Dr S Shanti Kumar Singh of All Manipur Gymnastics Association has been elected as the GFI Treasurer. Meera Korde of Maharashtra, Ashok Kumar Sahoo of Odisha and M Dhinkar Rajeswaran of Puducherry have been elected Vice Presidents. The fourth position of Vice President remained vacant as only three nominations were received by the Returning Officer.
O P Ranote of Himachal Pradesh, Ram Dulare of Delhi, Nishi Kant Pathak of Jharkhand and Digvijay Singh of Madhya Pradesh were elected as Joint Secretaries. The Returning Officer also announced the names of Executive Committee members. These include A Someshwar of Andhra Pradesh, K Atmachandran of Kerala and Anil Mishra of Uttar Pradesh.
The elections to the GFI Executive Body have been held following a directive from the Union Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports, Government of India. Besides approving the name of the Returning Officer, the Ministry had deputed S S Roy, Executive Director, Netaji Subhash National Institute of Sports, Patiala, as its Observer for these elections.
Roy, who was present at the election venue, will submit his report in a sealed cover to the Central Government on the conduct of these elections. GFI had also sent a request to IOA to send its Observer but it did not send anyone for these elections.
The Gymnastics Associations of 26 states and Union Territories affiliated with the GFI took part in the elections. Each Permanent Member affiliated with the GFI had been allotted two votes as per the mandate of Model Election Guidelines circulated by the Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports to all sports federations in the country.
Speaking on the occasion, new GFI President Jaspal Singh Kandhari said he will soon sit down with the new Executive Body members and firm up the plan to take the sport of gymnastics to the next level “so that our gymnasts have the best training facilities and opportunities to compete and excel in the international arena, particularly the Olympics.”