The Boxing Federation of India (BFI) on Wednesday rejected Anurag Thakur’s nomination for inclusion in the electoral college finalised for the March 28 elections, saying the former Sports Minister was “ineligible” to represent Himachal Pradesh. Himachal Pradesh Boxing Association (HPBA) had sent Thakur and President Rajesh Bhandari’s names. The BFI issued a 60-member electoral college that was finalised after scrutiny. Thakur, a BJP Lok Sabha MP, was expected to contest for BFI president’s post. “Mr. Anurag Singh Thakur (Himachal Pradesh Boxing Association) – The State Unit had sent the name, however, he is found ineligible for violation of Boxing Federation of India notice dated 07.03.2025 and National Sports Development Code of India, 2011,” BFI said, explaining the decision.
The March 7 notice, sent to all affiliated state associations, had mentioned that “only bonafide and duly elected members during the election AGM (duly notified to BFI) of the State Units affiliated with the BFI shall be authorised to represent their respective States/Union Territories”.
“Mr Thakur is not an elected member of the Himachal Pradesh state body, that’s why his name has been rejected. It is the job of the BFI to scrutinise all the names and send the list of eligible candidates to the Returning Officer, who will now upload the list,” said a BFI source.
However, HPBA asserted that Thakur is an elected Executive Council member of the state unit.
“Anurag Thakur is an elected member. He has been a member for last many years in the different capacities including Chairman. But now he is elected as an EC member. We have all the documents,” HPBA secretary Surender Kumar Shandil told PTI.
“We have given the two names from our side, let the returning officer do his job,” he added.
The BFI source contended that being the parent body, it has records of past elections conducted by the states bodies and Thakur’s name does not figure there.
According to the BFI Constitution “Each member association shall be represented by two members representatives authorised by the President of Secretary General/Secretary of the Association in the electoral college.
While the elections are scheduled for March 28, the deadline for filing nominations and withdrawals are yet to be announced by the BFI.
“We haven’t got any schedule, which is a very delaying tactics by the BFI,” Shandil said.
BFI president Ajay Singh, who is the Spice Jet chairman and managing director, is expected to seek re-election having already spent two terms heading the federation.
The BFI also rejected names of Larry Kharpran (Meghalya) and Asish Kumar Saha (Tripura) for the same reason and clarified that the two names sent by Delhi state body — Rohit Jainendra Jain and Neeraj Kant Bhatt — were subject to clearance from the Returning Officer.
The Indian Olympic Association (IOA) had set up a five-member Ad-hoc panel to oversee day to day functioning of boxing in the country after the BFI failed to conduct election on time.
However, the Delhi High Court on March 4 stayed the order when the Federation approached it, terming the move as “arbitrary and illegal”.
The BFI was supposed to conduct its election on or before February 2, 2025.
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