Summary: Arbitrarily amendment to BFI constitution is not acceptable, says Rajesh Bhandari
The Annual General Body Meeting (AGM) of the Boxing Federation of India (BFI) scheduled to be held on August 21 in Delhi/NCR is likely to be postponed. The main agenda during the AGM was elections of the new office bearers which are pending.
The World Boxing in its recent circular urged the BFI interim panel to conduct elections of office bearers before August 31, 2025. Term of current executive committee of BFI ended on Feb 2, 2025
“I doubt elections of new office bearers will take place because the BFI constitution has been arbitrarily changed, which is not acceptable,” says Rajesh Bhandari, vice president of BFI.
Bhandari is one of the key officials of the opposition party. Bhandari backed the candidature of former sports minister Anurag Thakur for the post of presidentship, which didn’t go down well with BFI incumbent president Ajay Singh. Showdown between two heavy weights for the post of presidentship eventually led to legal battle and elections were postponed in March.
Ajay Singh issued a notification on March 7 that mandates only bonafide and duly elected members (duly notified to BFI) shall be authorized to represent their respective States/Union Territories in the electoral college.
State units opposed
Several BFI states units have taken objection to this provision saying it restricts the state unit’s autonomy in determining its representatives, despite the fact that the BFI constitution allows for the nomination of representatives by the president or secretary General of the respective state unit.
For day to day functioning of boxing in India, the World Boxing set up an interim panel whose chairman is Ajay Singh. The World body had recently extended the term of BFI interim panel till August 31 and also urged it to hold the elections.
Roadmap for BFI elections
Meanwhile, the sports minister also urged the IOA (Indian Olympic Association) to set up a panel and chalk out a roadmap to hold BFI electrons.
Bhandari, a senior sports administrator from Himachal Pradesh and key person in the opposite camp, says the pending BFI elections should be held in a fair and transparent manner. “We have apprised the Sports Minister and Indian Olympic Association (IOA) to ensure the upcoming BFI elections are conducted as per constitution of the Indian boxing federation,” explains Bhandari. “The BFI constitution that elected Ajay Singh as president of the national governing body of boxing in India is acceptable to us.”
The BFI interim chairman Ajay Singh announced the AGM of BFI on August 21. “The member state/UT association are requested to send names of their two representatives as per the provisions of BFI’s constitution as approved by World Boxing,” states the circular of the BFI interim panel.
While the date of the AGM was announced on July 31, August 4 is the last date of sending names of two representatives to the BFI office via email.
World Boxing
Bhandari raised an issue saying, World Boxing doesn’t have jurisdiction to approve the BFI constitution. World Boxing has no right to interfere in the domestic matters of the BFI. Unless it is of global interest, Bhandari adds.
“The BFI is not anyone’s personal property. To amend the constitution there is a procedure. If someone makes random changes in the existing constitution and doesn’t follow the procedure, it might be because of some vested interest,” adds Bhandari.
Due to international rift between the officials of the BFI, the Indian contingent performance at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games wasn’t encouraging. After bronze in the women’s category through Lovlina Borgohain at Tokyo Olympic Games, the Indian team returned empty handed from the Paris Olympic Games.
