Dasmunshi elected president of AIFF for fourth term

Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi was on Saturday elected president of the All India Football Federation for a fourth term.

The much-awaited elections came off without any surprises.

Dasmunshi, who faced a contest for the first time, defeated Samir Thapar, vice-chairman of JCT Mills, Phagwara, by 23 votes to 10.

The election of other office-bearers also went along expected lines, with Alberto Colaso being elected secretary. He defeated K N Mour by 19 votes to 14, while A R Khaleel edged Ranjit Gupta 19-13 for the post of treasurer. Himachal Pradesh abstained in the vote for treasurer.

The elections, which were being watched with keen interest in the backdrop of nine top football clubs raising a banner of revolt against the AIFF and forming a new body, namely the Indian Premier Football Association, with Thapar seen to be having its tacit support, did have its share of controversies though.

Two associate members -- Chandigarh and Daman and Diu -- were given full membership by the AIFF president just ahead of the elections and were allowed to vote, raising the total number of voters to 33. That prompted Thapar to later cast aspersions on the procedure followed.

The AIFF constitution, however, allows the president to upgrade associate members as full members after four years and in this case both the concerned state associations had continued as associate members for more than four years.

Dasmunshi later defended his action, saying he only carried out his functions as president of the AIFF.

In an appeasement move, P P Lakshamanan, who was persuaded not to contest the election for the post of secretary, was appointed executive president by Dasmunshi.

Dasmunshi also announced the names of five new vice- presidents, including Vijay Mallya -- the brain behind the IPFA and a representative of Pondicherry -- and executive committee members, and named Praful Patel as senior vice-president.

He told reporters that with the likely addition of three new states -- Chhatisgarh, Jharkhand and Uttarakhand -- as members of AIFF, one more vice-president and two executive committee members would be added later.

He said the AIFF is planning to shift its headquarters from Calcutta to New Delhi next month to facilitate better coordination among its officials.

About new the secretary, Colaso, who is also the chairman of National Football League, Dasmunshi said he will continue to hold both the posts for the time being.

Ashok Ghosh was named chairman of the Afro-Asian Games and pre-World Cup preparatory committee.

The office-bearers:

Vice-presidents: Praful Patel, Auto Mejhor, C R Viswanathan, Vijay Mallaya, Raza-ud-din.

Executive Committee members: H Jadeja (Haryana), B Deingdo (Meghalaya), S S Hooda (Rajasthan), Ijaz Hussain (Bihar), N A Khan (Kashmir).