Nominations of two candidates for post of AIFF president cancelled after complaints of manipulation

New Delhi:  With less than a week to go for the All India Football Federation (AIFF) elections, the nominations of two presidential candidates — Manvendra Singh and Valanka Natasha Alemao — have been rejected following complaints of manipulation in the seconding of names.

The AIFF elections will be held on August 28.

Ahead of the scrutiny of nominations on Sunday, a complaint was received from one Jonathan De Sousa, a member of the Goa Football Association, stating that he had got information that Amit Khemani, president, Daman & Diu Football Association and a member of the electoral college, had been out of the country since August 16 but he had seconded the candidature of Valanka.

Based on the complaint, the Returning Officer asked Khemani to confirm whether he had seconded the nomination of Valanka. Khemani in his email the same day stated that his name had been used by Valanka without his knowledge and he had not signed any of the nomination papers of any of the candidates, indicating the signatures had been acquired fraudulently.

Harjinder Singh, the authorised representative of Chandigarh Football Association, also informed the Returning Officer that he had not proposed or seconded the name of Manvendra Singh for the post of president.

“Considering the fact that the aforesaid seconders for the said nominations are not legally valid, the nominations of Manvendra Singh and Valanka Natasha Alemao is not acceptable and accordingly their nominations for the post of president are rejected,” said Returning Officer Umesh Sinha in a notification on Sunday.

Manvendra Singh, when contacted, said, his candidature was initially seconded by Kosaraju but then “it was found that he had already signed in someone else’s form and he (Kosaraju) could not sign on my form”. And since there was a heavy rush, somebody whom Manvendra “did not recognise”, took the form and deposited it after getting it signed. “I have no idea how Harjinder’s signature got there,” said Manvendra.

The Returning Officer added that there were no other discrepancies in the nominations for the post of president as the “proposers and seconders have confirmed their proposals through mobile messages/emails and the final list of valid nominated candidates has been prepared”.

The nomination of Eugeneson Lyngdoh for the post of executive committee member has also been rejected as one Arif Ali had seconded the names of two candidates — Lyngdoh and Menla Ethenpa.

The Returning Officer said in his notification on Sunday that, as per the draft constitution of the AIFF, “no person shall be eligible to nominate more than one candidate for the same post, either as proposer or seconder and, if he so does, his/her signature on the nomination papers delivered second in point of time to the Returning Officer shall be deemed to be inoperative”.

As the nomination of Lyngdoh was received after Ethenpa had already filed his nomination paper, the nomination of the latter was accepted and the second nomination of Lyngdoh was rejected.

In a similar case, one Mohan Lal had proposed the names of Lalnghinglowa Hmar and Deepak Sharma for the post of executive committee members. But since Sharma’s nomination was received after Hmar had filed his papers, the former’s candidature was rejected.

Five candidates — charismatic footballer Bhaichung Bhutia, Shaji Prabhakaran, Kalyan Chaubey, NA Haris and Ajit Banerjee — have thrown their hat into the ring for the post of president, while six nominations have been received for the post of treasurer. A total of 11 candidates are in the fray for posts of executive committee members.

–IANS