The tussle for one-upmanship in the Andhra Pradesh Olympic Association witnessed an interesting twist with Narinder Batra- Rajeev Mehta duo winning the contentious Indian Olympic Association election as president and general secretary respectively, in New Delhi on Thursday.
The victory got nothing to do with the warring groups led by Telugu Desam’s Guntur Member of Parliament Galla Jayadev and Rajya Sabha MP C.M. Ramesh, as the acrimonious infighting entered the portals of the Andhra Pradesh High Court, and under its instructions an arbitrary panel was constituted to pass an award after meticulously going through various case details.
“The court had asked the panel to deliver its award in three months. Two months have elapsed and the award will be issued any time next month. Both the warring groups will have to act as per the award,” said a senior lawyer, who did not want to be quoted.
Meanwhile members of the C.M. Ramesh Group went ahead and celebrated the Delhi victory by meeting Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu and seeking support for the growth of the sports.
However, there is speculation that a compromise formula would be put to place to assuage the emotions of the both the TDP MPs, who are fighting for supremacy of APOA.
Vertical split
The bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh paved the way for difference of opinions among the sports administrators forcing APOA to split into two.
With former IOA chief N. Ramachandran recognising the Galla Jayadev Group, the C.M. Ramesh Group went on the backfoot, but kept seeking legal interventions.
Repeated spats
In fact, Mr. Naidu, irked by the repeated public spats by both the MPs (on the APOA issue), asked them to stay away from contest.
He is believed to have asked both the MPs to withdraw from the sports associations and entrusted the responsibility to then Sports Minister K Atchannaidu.
Later developments couldn’t deliver the anticipated results and the Chief Minister entrusted the responsibility to Finance Minister Yanamala Ramakrishnudu.
