Sports Ministry to appoint observer for boxing federation's elections

The Sports Ministry will depute an observer for the much-awaited elections, scheduled for September 25 in Mumbai, to constitute a new Boxing Federation of India.

"#MYAS, GOI decides to depute an observer to the #Boxing federation of #India elections to be held on 25th Sept, 2016 in Mumbai," the ministry tweeted on its official handle for the Department of Sports Affairs.

Justice (Retd) D K Deshmukh of the Bombay high court has been appointed the Returning Officer for the election, which is expected to end the administrative logjam that has wrecked havoc on the sport's progress.

Candidates have until September 15 to file their nominations for the positions of President, Secretary-General, Treasurer, Zonal Vice-Presidents (8) and Zonal Secretaries (8).

The final list of nominations will be released on September 20.

It is learned that the president's position will be a three-way contest between Delhi's Rohit Jain, Haryana's Rakesh Thakran and Himachal Pradesh's Rajesh Bhandari.

Maharashtra's Jay Kowli and Goa's Lenny D'Gama are expected to fight it out for the Secretary-General's post.

The International Boxing Association (AIBA) and Indian Olympic Association (IOA) have also been requested to depute observers for the election by the ad-hoc committee which is currently running boxing in the country.

Indian boxing is in an administrative mess ever since the erstwhile Indian Amateur Boxing Federation (IABF) was suspended for manipulation in elections.

The body which replaced IABF in 2014 -- Boxing India -- also failed to run the show for even a year and had to be dissolved following a rebellion by the state units.

The boxers have suffered the most because of the logjam. Only three -- Shiva Thapa (56kg), Manoj Kumar (64kg) and Vikas krishan (75kg) -- made the cut for last month's Rio Olympics but none could win a medal.