The internal politics in the All India Tennis Association (AITA) got messier as the parent body on Saturday removed its Vice-President Karti Chidambaram citing conflict of interest while the aggrieved official has decided to move court to challenge his expulsion.
The AITA held its AGM in the city and apart from removing the Tamil Nadu tennis administrator; it also conducted elections for the 12 member Executive Committee.
CBN Reddy, also from Tamil Nadu, was voted out and Dinesh Arora from Punjab was elected as the new member.
Reasoning Mr. Karti’s expulsion, AITA President Anil Khanna said they have just implemented the provision of the constitution, which does not allow its office bearers to hold posts in two different National Sports Federations.
Mr. Karti is also President of the Tenpin bowl federation and thus the conflict of interest.
Mr. Khanna said clause 27B (e) of their constitution does not allow its office bearers to hold two posts.
“We gave him an opportunity to choose one of the two posts but he was non-committal. Today, the Council unanimously decided that constitution should be respected. So it was a case of automatic termination,” Mr. Khanna said at a press conference.
When reminded that Vice President is not considered as office-bearer (executive functionary) according to the National Sports Code, Mr. Khanna said they are just following their constitution and they will see when its becomes a law.
Mr. Khanna said Reddy could get only 22.75 votes, so he lost his place in the Executive Committee.
Mr. Karti though termed his expulsion as unconstitutional, illegal and undemocratic.
“They invited me to the meeting as Vice President of AITA and then removed me. And I have said that since a VP in AITA does not have any executive functions, VP is not an office-bearer. I will challenge this expulsion and this Executive Committee (EC) election to the court. This is first time they have conducted elections just because they wanted to remove a member from Tamil Nadu,” Mr. Karti said.
Asked if there was a case of vendetta, Mr. Karti said, “I ask them inconvenient questions, so they don’t like me. They demanded royalty from us for Chennai Open, which we refused to give them, so they don’t want us there. I ask questions about selections, so they don’t like me,” he said.
Mr. Karti also refuted allegations that he or anyone from the Tenpin bowling Federation wrote to ministry suggesting that the government should not send Indian players to Asian Games since top players have pulled out.
Meanwhile, Mr. Khanna also informed that they have brought in an amendment which will allow two players, who have played Davis Cup, Fed Cup, Olympics or Asian Games to be inducted into Executive Committee for a two-year term.
Also, since Pakistan cannot host sports events due to security reasons in that country, they have chosen India as a venue to host two junior ITF tournaments in November. AITA will give 3 wild cards to Pakistani players.
Also, AITA will sign agreements with US Open and Roland Garros to develop junior tennis.
