Anurag Thakur back in fray to challenge Singh for BFI's prez post after Himachal court's ruling

NEW DELHI: Boxing Federation of India’s (BFI) elections are heading towards an intriguing finish.
Incumbent Ajay Singh and the opposing faction challenging his presidential candidacy are exercising every conceivable strategy to outmanoeuvre each other in this high-stakes electoral contest.
After the initial triumph of having rejected former sports minister Anurag Thakur’s bid to contest the federation’s elections following an unexpected office directive and suspending secretary general Hemanta Kalita and treasurer Digvijay Singh on allegations of corruption and favouritism, Singh-led BFI has been compelled to confront successive setbacks within a span of two days through various court orders, yielding the advantage to their opponents.
On March 7, the Delhi high court had stayed the federation’s directive that only bonafide and duly-elected members of BFI’s affiliated units are authorised to represent their respective states in the forthcoming elections, scheduled for March 28 in Gurugram. The court had ruled on a petition filed by the Delhi Amateur Boxing Association (DABA), paving the way for its office bearers Rohit Jainendra Jain and Neeraj Kant Bhatt to vote in the BFI’s annual general meeting (AGM) as Delhi boxing body’s representatives.
On Thursday, another ruling by the Himachal Pradesh high court allowed Thakur to contest the BFI’s presidential election by staying his disqualification from the electoral college based on the March 7 circular and directed Returning Officer – former Delhi high court judge R K Gauba – to include the senior BJP leader and four-time Lok Sabha MP’s name as one of the representatives from the Himachal boxing body to enable his candidature.
A single judge bench of Justice Ajay Mohan Goel directed the BFI to extend the last date of submission of nominations so that Thakur can file his papers whilst permitting him to represent the Himachal Pradesh Boxing Association (HPBA) in the AGM and “fully participate therein”.
Justice Goel ruled that the electoral college approved by the RO on March 12 and 13, which left out Thakur, “is prima facie bad and not sustainable in law”
“In this backdrop, balance of convenience is also in favour of the petitioners and if interim, as prayed for by the petitioners is not granted, then irreparable loss shall be caused to them. As an ad-interim measure, this court stayed the operation of notice, dated 07.03.2025, as well as the rejection of nomination of one of the two nominated members namely, Mr. Anurag Singh Thakur. It also goes without saying that the election process will be subject to the final outcome of this writ petition or any other order that may be passed by the court in this application,” the order stated.
The court ruled that prima facie, it was evident that the March 7 order by Singh was issued “without any authority and without any power”.
Thakur was declared ineligible on the grounds that he wasn’t an elected member of the HPBA and can’t represent the state in the BFI’s AGM. The HPBA maintained that Thakur was an elected member of the state unit since 2008 and served “in different capacities, including chairman”.
HPBA’s president Rajesh Bhandari will be another representative from the state, along with Thakur.
Reacting to the development, a BFI source close to president Singh’s camp said that the next course of action will be decided after going through the 34-page order. “A lot will now depend on the RO. We have received both the court orders and the BFI’s legal team will go through them. We will certainly challenge them in the respective courts,” added the source.