Virender Kanwar becomes Volleyball Federation of India president

Virender Kanwar from Himachal Pradesh became the president of Volleyball Federation of India (VFI) after defeating Nagaland's Prem Singh Bajor by a mere two votes in the long-awaited polls that picked an interim panel, here on Saturday.

Kanwar polled 33 votes, two more than his close rival Bajor. The third candidate in the fray -- Bihar's Anand Shankar -- surprisingly did not get a single vote.

Ramanand Choudhary from Rajasthan became the new general secretary after getting 33 votes, beating Maharashtra's Nilesh Jagtap by four votes.

The polls, which were to be held originally in February 2024, elected the interim body as per the Delhi High Court order.

"As per the Court order it is an interim body till the petitions regarding the elections are not decided. Also after the federation brings in required amendments, a fresh election will be held, the court order further stated. The federation will also have to provide timely reports on developments to the Court," according to a press release.

The newly-elected body will now have to make the federation Sports Code-compliant, constitute an Athletes Commission, and bring in the required amendments as per the roadmap suggested by the Sports Ministry and the Indian Olympic Association (IOA).

The federation will have to provide timely reports to the Court on the developments.

The newly elected President, Virender Kanwar said, "As per the Court's directives, we are fully committed to implementing all necessary compliances under the Sports Code. We will soon call an Annual General Meeting to take key decisions and build a capable, transparent, and accountable federation."

A three-member steering committee which has Rohit Rajpal, Stephen Bock (FIVB representative), and Hitesh Malhotra (FIVB Head of Empowerment) as members will support the elected panel to carry forward the work of the ad-hoc panel.

Rajpal was also the chairman of the ad-hoc panel that ran the affairs of the VFI for nearly 14 months.

Rajasthan's Ramanand Choudhary won the key post of General Secretary after getting 33 votes, beating Maharashtra's Nilesh Jagtap (29 votes) by a small margin.

Telangana's N V Hanmanath and Susanta Biswa from Assam received 36 votes each to take the two Vice Presidents' posts ahead of Sidharth Daluja (J&K, 27 votes) and Vijay Dangre (Maharashtra, 23 votes).

Hari Singh Chauhan from Madhya Pradesh won the election for the post of treasurer while Anand Shankar and Kuldeep Vats grabbed the two posts of joint secretary.

Binoy Josh, Mithlesh Kumar, Uttam Raj, S Ramadasse and Partha Das got elected as members of the Executive Committee.

Justice P. Krishna Bhat (Retd.), conducted the elections as the court-appointed Returning Officer while observers from the Indian Olympic Association (IOA), the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, and the International Volleyball Federation (FIVB) also monitored the proceedings.

"The world body FIVB has invested heavily in India in the last 15 months. They helped in setting up a Centre of Excellence as part of the SAI centre. So it wanted that a steering committee be formed to keep track of developments so that the good work can be carried forward," Rajpal said.