TNBF president and lottery king Martin’s son-in-law’s nomination becomes invalid in BFI polls

Chennai, Feb 14 (IANS)

Tamil Nadu Basketball federation president Aadhav Arjuna and his panel’s nomination papers were rejected by the returning officer in the elections to the Basketball Federation of India. Aadhav was contesting for the post of President of the BFI. The returning officer rejected his panel’s nominations after it was found that the nomination  papers that were submitted were not in the format prescribed by the National Federation. The returning officer for the elections to the BFI, Justice (Rtd) Malleshappa who was a former district judge in Karnataka rejected the applications. 

While Aadhav Arjuna had filed his nomination papers for the post of president, Kulwinder Singh Gill from Madhya Pradesh was contesting for the post of Secretary General.

The papers that were rejected included that of Aadhav Arjuna, Kulwinder Singh Gill and for nominations from states like Puducherry, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal ,Nagaland, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Telengana. 

The 12 nominations that have been declared valid are of the present BFI president, K. Govindaraju from Karnataka, Ajeet Singh Rathore for the post of Secretary General from Rajasthan as also nominations from states like Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, Punjab and Haryana.

The elections to the Basketball Federation of India will be  conducted on February 18th.

It may be noted that Aadhav Arjuna is the son in law of lottery king ,Santiago Martin. Aadhav is himself a national level basketball player and is also the Managing Director Arise Capital Services Pvt Ltd.

When contacted Aadhav Arjuna did not respond to IANS. 

The Basketball Federation of India president, Dr. Govindaraju and his panel is now likely to be elected unopposed. However sources from the camp of Aadhav Arjuna told IANS that they will be moving the Delhi High Court against the returning officer rejecting their nomination on flimsy grounds.

With the Basketball Federation of India planning major events across the country to promote the game among youngsters, the crisis in the association is likely to affect the future prospects of the game.