Ajay Singh is re-elected BFI president

Gurugram: Incumbent Ajay Singh was on Thursday re-elected President of the Boxing Federation of India (BFI) for a third consecutive term after his comprehensive victory over Jaslal Pradhan in the long-overdue polls.

The elections, postponed by more than six months amid legal wrangling, were conducted in the presence of Returning Officer Rajesh Tandon and BFI interim committee head Fairuz Mohammed of Singapore, who was sent by World Boxing as its observer.

World Boxing President Boris van der Vorst and Secretary General Mike McAtee, who were originally set to be observers, did not attend the polls.

The Sports Ministry and the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) also didn’t send any observers. Singh, who is also the managing director of SpiceJet Airlines, won the contest 40-26. He will be joined by a new secretary general Pramod Kumar of Uttar Pradesh, who succeeds Assam’s Hemanta Kalita.

Kalita was ineligible to contest after serving two consecutive four-year terms as an office-bearer and must now undergo the mandatory cooling-off period.