PT Usha Alleges Fraud After Losing IOA Sportspersons of Merit Poll

Indian Olympic Association (IOA) president PT Usha finished fifth in the Sportspersons of Outstanding Merit (SOM) election held in New Delhi on Monday, 9 November, and has since told The Tribune she believes the result was fraudulent. Six candidates contested four women’s seats; Saina Nehwal, Anju Bobby George, Dola Banerjee and Rani Rampal were elected, according to ANI and Onmanorama. Usha has asked the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and Prime Minister Narendra Modi to intervene.

Forty Votes Against Fifty-Three

The SOM category has 80 members on the IOA electoral roll, 40 men and 40 women. The Tribune reported the tally as Anju Bobby George 53, Rani Rampal 50, Dola Banerjee 45, Saina Nehwal 43 and Usha 40. Usha told the paper she had received more than 25 single-preference votes and that the voters had confirmed their choices to her, which in her view made George’s total mathematically implausible. These are Usha’s claims; the reports reviewed do not carry a response from the winning candidates or the IOA.

A Complaint Already With the IOC

Usha said she has sent the IOC a complaint about what she called underhand tactics by a faction within the IOA executive committee, and that complaints about code-of-conduct breaches during the election were not acted on by the returning officer. She said she took up the IOA role in 2022 at the Prime Minister’s urging and called the result an insult to that effort. Usha was elected the association’s first woman president in 2022.

No Word Yet on a Review

None of the reports reviewed says whether the IOA will examine the complaints, or what the result means for Usha’s position. IPB News has not seen the complaint letters. Other reports from the Daily Updates desk are on the IPB News Daily Updates page.

Source: Based on reporting by The Tribune, ANI and Onmanorama. No official IOA result document was found online.

Image: Manorama.