Ramachandran set to be elected IOA president

World Squash Federation (WSF) president N. Ramachandran is all set to be elected unopposed on Sunday as the president of the Indian Olympic Association (IOA).

Kho Kho Federation of India (KKFI) president Rajeev Mehta and All India Tennis Association (AITA) president Anil Khanna will also be elected unopposed as the secretary general and treasurer.

The polls may finally pave the way for India's return to the Olympic fold since it was suspended by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in December 2012 over its controversial elections.

Most of the candidates for the IOA posts will be unanimously chosen as both the Abhay Chautala and the Randhir Singh group finally worked out a consensual list of candidates in January. But a contest could not be avoided for the post of vice-president where nine candidates have filed nominations for eight posts.

The polls will be conducted in the presence of three IOC observers - IOC director of National Olympic Committees (NOC) relations Pere Miro, IOC Ethics Commission member Francisco J. Elizalde and Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) director General Husain Al Musallam.

Ramachandran is a former Squash Rackets Federation of India (SRFI) secretary general and also the brother of Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) supremo N. Srinivasan. He was elected treasurer in 2012 before the IOA was suspended.

On the other hand, Mehta is also a Hockey India (HI) associate vice-president while Khanna, in the past, has also been the IOA treasurer and had resigned during the 2010 Commonwealth Games.

Assam Olympic Association president Bhubaneswar Kalita, who was India's Chef de Mission at the 2010 Commonwealth Games here, and Indian Weightlifting Federation (IWF) chief Birendra Prasad Baishya, whose names were doing the rounds for the president's post, missed out.

Randhir's daughter Sunaina Kumari, who head the bowling federation, will be one of the six joint secretaries.

Probable list of principal office bearers:

President: N. Ramachandran

Senior vice-president: Virendra Nanavati

Vice-presidents: Anurag Thakur, Akhilesh Das Gupta, Janardhan Singh Gehlot, R.K. Anand, G.S. Mandher, Tarlochan Singh, Birendra Prasad Baishya, Parminder Singh Dhinsa, Rajlaxmi Singh Deo

Secretary General: Rajeev Mehta

Treasurer: Anil Khanna