Kalyan Chaubey elected as new AIFF President

Kalyan Chaubey has beaten Bhaichung Bhutia in the race to become the newly appointed AIFF President. The BJP minister from West Bengal got 33 votes in his favour as compared to the one got by the former India captain.

Chaubey, during his nomination, was backed by the Gujarat and Arunachal Pradesh state associations, whereas Bhutia was backed by Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan state football associations.

The former India national team goalkeeper also becomes the first player to hold the post in All India Football Federation's entire existence. Chaubey, a BJP politician who lost the last parliamentary election for the Krishnanagar seat in West Bengal, never played for the India senior team though he was in the squad on few occasions.

He, however, played for India in age-group international tournaments. He was also a former goalkeeper at Mohun Bagan and East Bengal, both heavyweights in Indian club football with a rich legacy. In fact, Bhutia and Chaubey were one-time teammates at East Bengal.

Karnataka Football Association president N A Haris, a sitting Congress MLA, won the election for the lone post of vice president, beating Manvendra Singh of Rajasthan FA 29-5. Arunachal Pradesh's Kipa Ajay beat Gopalakrishna Kosaraju of Andhra Pradesh for the treasurer's post 32-1 with one vote being invalid. Kosaraju and Manvendra proposed and seconded Bhutia.

All the 14 candidates who had filed nominations for as many executive committee members' posts were elected unopposed.

In his first reactions after the polls, Bhutia said, "I will keep working for the betterment of Indian football in future. Congratulations to Kalyan, I hope he will take Indian football forward. "Thanks to all football fans across India for showing supporting me so much. I've been working for football before the elections, and will continue to do the same. Yes, I'm there in executive committee."

New executive committee members: G P Palguna, Avijit Paul, P Anilkumar, Valanka Natasha Alemao, Maloji Raje Chhatrapati, Menla Ethenpa, Mohan Lal, Arif Ali, K Neibou Sekhose, Lalnghinglova Hmar, Deepak Sharma, Vijay Bali and Syed Imtiaz Husain.

Bhutia, I M Vijayan, Shabbir Ali and Climax Lawrence will be in the executive committee as players' representatives.