BJP’s Kalyan Chaubey and Congress’ NA Haris Join Hands to Run AIFF: Reports

Kalyan Chaubey and NA Haris have reached an agreement for the posts of president and vice-president respectively.

Sources suggest that State football associations nominated Kalyan Chaubey and NA Haris unanimously for the role of president and vice-president of AIFF and will elect the two without contest.  

(Photo: IANS)

Kalyan Chaubey, the BJP leader from West Bengal, is the unanimous choice of the 36 state football federations for the post of president of All India Football Federations (AIFF) while Congress leader NA Haris of Karnataka State Football Association and Kipa Ajay of Arunachal Football Association to get vice-president and treasurer posts respectively, sources in the know of things said.

It seems that BJP and Congress have joined hands to run the AIFF as Kalyan Chaubey from BJP and NA Haris from Congress have reached an agreement for the post of president and vice-president posts.

Sources said that once the executive committee is elected, the Delhi Football's president Saji Prabhakaran is expected to take over as the General Secretary of AIFF.

"The decision has been taken in a Delhi hotel yesterday evening that the State Associations will nominate the candidates unanimously and elect them without contest," he said.

On Wednesday, the state associations had called a press conference but postponed it due to unavoidable reasons.

The sources told IANS that the reason behind the postponement of the press meet was disagreement on the few names. But now it has been decided that both Chaubey and Haris will be elected unanimously.

According to the sources, the 14 executive committee members will be: Avijit Paul -Orissa, Syed Imtiaz Husainv-Bihar, Menla Ethenpa - Sikkim, Mohan Lal - Chattisgarh, Lalnghinglova Hmar - Mizoram, K Neibou Sekhose - Nagaland, Deepak Sharma -Himachal Pradesh, Arif Ali - Uttarakhand , Vijay Bali - Punjab, Anilkumar P -Kerala, G.P.Palguna - Telengana, Dilip Singh Shekhawat - Rajasthan, Maloji Raje Chhatrapati - The Western India Football Association (Maharashtra), Valanka Natasha Alemao- Goa.

The filing of the nomination will start on Thursday at 11 am. The team is a combination of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress.

After the SC order, the returning officer Umesh Sharma stated that the election will be held on 2nd September at the AIFF headquarters in Delhi and the results could be announced either on 2nd or 3rd September.

The nominations for the posts can be filed between 25-27 August while the scrutiny will be done on 28 August, the returning officer said.

The candidates will have a chance to withdraw the nomination on 29 August while the returning officer shall prepare the final list of contesting candidates and put it on the AIFF website on 30 August.

The Supreme Court on Monday terminated the mandate of the CoA to manage the affairs of the AIFF and also postponed the election, earlier scheduled on 28 August, by one week.

The top court had said it is modifying its previous orders to facilitate the revocation of the suspension which has been imposed on the AIFF by FIFA and the holding of the under-17 Women's World Cup 2022 in India.