Chautala-Bhanot 'unexpected' support saves Ramachandran for now

Indian Olympic Association (IOA) president N Ramachandran can breathe easy as the proposed move to bring in a 'no-confidence motion' against him has been put on hold.

This 'unexpected' relief for Ramachandran has come after the intervention of former IOA chief Abhay Singh Chautala — who had to leave his seat after India was handed suspension by the International Olympic Committee — and disgraced ex secretary general Lalit Bhanot.

The Tamil Nadu strong man was under pressure after Hockey India president Narinder Batra was leading the campaign to oust him, calling IOA's Special General Body Meeting (SGBM) by securing signatures of half of the members.

Batra has been claiming the support of 17 National Sports Federations (NSFs) and 18 State Olympic Associations (SOAs) to initiate the no-confidence proceedings against the Tamil Nadu strongman. However, dna has learnt from the top sources that after this unlikely intervention by Chautala and Bhanot, the matter has now been put on the backburner.

Both Chautala and Bhanot still command a considerable amount of control over the day-to-day working of the IOA. It is also no secret that present IOA secretary Rajiv Mehta and other senior office bearers 'unofficially' consult Chautala and Bhanot on all important matters.

There was also a complete breakdown of relations between Ramachandran and Mehta as the former stopped consulting Mehta on important issues. What further dented Ramachandran's image among the IOA's Executive Committee (EC) members, was when he decided to invite IOC president Thomas Bach to India, without consulting IOA colleagues.

It was then that Chautala gave his nod to oust-Ramachandran-campaign. However, Ramachandran lost no time in sensing the mood among the IOA members and started making amends with Chautala and Bhanot group. He also met the two powerful disgruntled sports administrators later last month and apparently convinced them that "he is not working against their interest".

It has been reliably learnt that it was after this meeting that Chautala called an unofficial meeting of the presidents of the SOAs and EC members on May 28 and instructed them to drop the 'no-confidence motion' that they intended to bring at the behest of Batra.

"The decision has been conveyed to Mr Batra after the meeting on May 28 and it's unlikely that he will go against the two heavyweights of the IOA. That's why you can see that Mr Batra has stopped sending mails to the media and the IOA office bearers for the past couple of days," a senior IOA official told dna on the condition of anonymity.

Also, Ramachandran has written twice to various members of the IOA in the last one month clarifying that he and Mehta "fully agree and abide by the present constitution of the IOA (as approved by the International Olympic Committee) where certain rights (are) given to the SOAs / NSFs / indigenous sports federations."

Meanwhile, Ramachandran's detractors, who claim to have support of close to 52 per cent SOAs and 47 per cent NSFs, rejected his assurance and alleged that the IOA chief was behind the formation of a committee (by the ministry) which would decide to include provisions such as withdrawal of voting rights of SOAs, reduction of the IOA Executive Body to 21, setting an age limit of 70 years for all EB members of the IOA and NSFs and formation of new election guidelines in the Sports Code.