Elections will be held only for the post of chairman in the election general assembly of Nepal Olympic Committee (NOC) to be held this week. After Judo's Deepakharsh Vajracharya and Kabaddi's Tulsi Thapa withdrew their nominations for the post of vice-president on Tuesday, the election will be held only for the leadership.
Although the current working committee president Jeevanram Shrestha and Nilendraraj Shrestha have worked together for the last four years, they have now become rivals. There are three candidates for the post of president. Shresthadway along with handball star Tej Bahadur Gurung are among the candidates for leadership at midnight on Monday.
The NOC election will be held on Saturday. In the committee, 9 people nominated for seven vice presidents. After two of them withdrew their names, Jyoti Rana of tennis, Ashokratna Vajracharya of swimming, Chaturanand Rajavaidya of table tennis, Prakash Shamsher Rana of taekwondo, Anil Sharma of hockey and Gopalsunder Lal Kashpati of cycling were elected unopposed as vice presidents, according to NOC.
Rajeev Shrestha, President of Rafting and Canoeing, and Tasi Ghale, President of Nepal Golf Association, were the only candidates for General Secretary and they were elected unopposed earlier. Along with this, NOC has got a new face in the Secretary General. Shrestha, who has been a one-term member and co-secretary general of NOC, is the former president of Nepal Boxing Association. He has been active in Nepali sports for more than three decades.
Badminton's Ramji Bahadur Shrestha as Joint Secretary and Archery's Ramesh Sivakoti, Basketball's Bhimsingh Gurung and Weightlifting's Ramkrishna Shrestha were also elected unopposed. Among the other members, Geeta Rana of gymnastics, Manish Joshi of football, Lakpa Sherpa of USU, Jitendra Bahadur Chand of volleyball and Ram Awale of boxing have been elected unopposed.
Meanwhile, Youth and Sports Minister Tejulal Choudhary said that all the associations participating in the NOC election process will be prosecuted in defiance of the court order. He made this announcement at the logo unveiling event of Nepal Volleyball League in the capital on Tuesday.
Although the court issued a show cause order regarding the election, the NOC leadership continued the election process. Nominations were registered on Monday. After the NOC conducted the election process, the police intervened on Monday morning. After that, the nominations were opened online.
The Patan High Court issued a show cause order regarding the election while hearing the petition filed by four sports associations including the Rugby Association. It was also ordered to bring both sides to the 12th of January for discussion. Minister Chowdhury expressed his anger as he proceeded with the election process ignoring it.
