IOA constitutes ad hoc committee to hold karate federation elections

The Indian Olympic Association has constituted a three member ad hoc committee to hold elections of Karate Federation of India after ruling that the tenure of the national sports federation has expired and poll process has been delayed.

The move meant that the elections of the KFI proposed to be held on September 23 will not be accepted by the IOA, if at all it happens.

The ad hoc committee will be chaired by Bhubaneshwar Kailta, who has earlier held important positions in the IOA. The other two members are IOA joint secretary Rakesh Gupta and Indian Weightlifting Federation Secretary Sahdev Yadav.

"The tenure of office bearers of Karate Federation of India has already expired, so the validity of its office bearers and council members have become null and void. There has been delay in commencing the process of election and now serious doubts have been raised and allegations have been made, inter alia, on the issue of appointment of returning officer," the IOA said.

"In order to ensure the elections are conducted in a democratic manner as per the applicable guidelines, the IOA president has no other option but to constitute an ad hoc committee to ensure that free and fair elections are held within 120 days," IOA Secretary General Rajeev Mehta wrote in the letter written to KFI president K R Thiagarajan.

The IOA said that "complaints, including a complaint from the KFI president himself, raising objections on the validity of the process of elections to be held on September 23, 2018".

"There are also complaints of alleged violation of model election guidelines of National Sports Code."