PANAJI: Himanta Biswa Sarma was elected president of Badminton Association of India during its annual general body meeting here.
Sarma, a cabinet minister of the ruling BJP in Assam, was elected unopposed for a term four-year term. He took over as the interim president of the BAI last year after the demise of Akhilesh Das Gupta.
Ajay Singhania of Haryana Badminton Association was elected general secretary after defeating KK Sharma of Rajasthan Badminton Association, PTI reports.
Former Tamil Nadu Badminton Association president Anbumani Ramadoss was elected as the treasurer uncontested. Ramadoss, a former Union minister, is currently a sitting Lok Sabha MP from Dharmapuri constituency.
Sarma congratulated all the office-bearers and vowed to do everything in his power to take India to the pinnacle of world badminton.
“I would like to congratulate all the elected members and I am sure that everyone will fulfill their responsibilities to the best of their capacity. Indian badminton has been at an all-time high and we as a federation will strive to take it forward and make Indian badminton to the top of the pedestal,” PTI quotes Sarma as having said after the election.
“I would also like to bring it to everyone’s notice that I along with the entire office-bearers will be working in complete transparent manner and will work to make the association (BAI) the most professional NSF in the country,” he added.
Retd. Chief Justice of High Courts of J&K and Sikkim, Dr Aftab Hussain Saikia, was the returning officer for the electoral process.
A total of 61 votes were cast by the 31 member affiliates with each state casting two votes except for Telengana which is on a provisional affiliation. Pondicherry Badminton Association was barred from voting as it currently stands as a defunct body.
Maharashtra Badminton Association president Arun Lakhani was elected unopposed as the senior vice-president.
A total of 42 posts were up for grabs, including that of president, senior vice-president, 12 vice-presidents, three secretaries, eight joint secretaries and 16 executive committee members.
All the executive committee members were elected unanimously.
Meanwhile, Sarma’s first decision post election was to extend chief national coach P Gopichand’s tenure for another four years and allow Sanjay Mishra to continue as junior national coach till 2022. Gopichand has been national coach since 2006.
“Badminton has entered an important and interesting phase. We want to help our players in whatever way possible. We want to help the state associations and want to set up academies. We will now convene an executive committee meeting and come up with a vision document for the next four years,” Sarma told Times of India.
