In its 85-year history, the All India Football Federation (AIFF) elected Kalyan Chaubey to the position of president on Friday, defeating the illustrious Bhaichung Bhutia in a landslide.
The 45-year-old goalie Chaubey won with a commanding 33-1 margin, which was to be expected given that the former captain Bhutia had few supporters among the 34 state association delegates who made up the voters’ list.
Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi and Praful Patel, Chaubey’s most recent two predecessors, worked as full-time politicians.
Although he occasionally participated in the squad, Chaubey, a BJP politician who lost the most recent parliamentary election for the Krishnanagar constituency in West Bengal, never played for the India senior team. But he participated in age-group international competitions for India. He has held the position of goalie for East Bengal and Mohun Bagan, two legendary Indian club football powerhouses.
In actuality, Bhutia and Chaubey had already worked together at East Bengal.
NA Haris, the president of the Karnataka Football Association and a current Congress MLA, defeated Rajasthan FA’s Manvendra Singh 29-5 to win the election for the position of vice president.
Kipa Ajay of Arunachal Pradesh defeated Gopalakrishna Kosaraju of Andhra Pradesh 32-1, with one vote being invalid, for the position of treasurer.
Bhutia was suggested by Kosaraju, who was seconded by Manvendra.