Ajay Singh defeated Olympian boxer Jaslal Pradhan to be re-elected the Boxing Federation of India (BFI) president for a third consecutive term on Thursday (August 21, 2025).
Ajay polled 40 votes to Pradhan’s 26 on the elections held in Gurugram, in line with BFI sources.
Pramod Kumar was elected the secretary-general, whereas Pon Baskaran was elected the treasurer.
Fairuz Mohamed, the chairman of the BFI interim committee and a World Boxing (WB) consultant, expressed satisfaction over the “fair and transparent” election course of as per the “constitution approved by WB.”
The election outcomes will probably be topic to the ultimate final result of a case within the Delhi High Court.
The lengthy overdue BFI elections have been impacted because of authorized battles amid allegations of irregularities, together with the ‘undemocratic’ change within the BFI structure, and attracted consideration because of rejection of former Sports Minister Anurag Thakur’s identify from the electoral faculty.
No observer from ministry, IOA; World Boxing chief additionally skips polls
The polls have been performed within the presence of Returning Officer Justice (retd) Rajesh Tandon and BFI interim committee head Fairuz Mohammed of Singapore, deputed by World Boxing as its observer.
World Boxing President Boris van der Vorst and Secretary General Mike McAtee, initially scheduled to attend as observers, have been additionally not current.
“Boris was unable to come yesterday, which was the plan. He will be travelling to India in the next few days to finalise the venue for the World Boxing Cup in November,” Singh mentioned.
The Sports Ministry and the IOA didn’t ship observers, a transfer that drew objections from the rival faction led by Himachal Pradesh unit chief Rajesh Bhandari.
“We wrote to them but they declined without giving any reason,” Singh mentioned.
It is known that the Ministry is adopting a wait and watch method till the courtroom delivers its verdict.
“We have already told the Delhi High Court that we do not think that the procedure followed in the conduct of these elections is right. We will wait now and see what the court says,” a Ministry supply mentioned.
The outcomes of the polls stay topic to the ultimate verdict of an ongoing case within the Delhi High Court, the place a number of state items have challenged the constitutional amendments launched by the interim committee that had been overseeing BFI’s every day affairs.
The High Court has set September 23 as the subsequent date of listening to.
“Of course the matter is going on in the court and the court had said in its last hearing that they wanted the elections to go on.
“They additionally made the end result of the elections topic to the ultimate final result of the case which is what occurs each time a authorized matter is filed in an election. So all of us will abide by the legislation of the land,” Singh said.
Singh, who was first elected to office in 2016, said his priority would be to focus on grassroots development.
“My foremost dedication is to make sure that each ounce of power now goes into strengthening grassroots packages, empowering our junior and youth athletes, and constructing on India’s rising stature in world boxing.” The elections were initially scheduled for March 28 but were repeatedly stalled due to a series of petitions, appeals and counter-appeals.
(with inputs from PTI)
