New Delhi, November 9: PT Usha, the president of the Indian Olympic Association (IOA), lost the women's Sportspersons of Outstanding Merit (SOM) election on Monday, failing to secure one of the four seats that carry a place in the IOA General Assembly, PTI reported. Usha can stand in the IOA Executive Council elections scheduled for December 5 only if a National Sports Federation nominates her to the General Assembly, which PTI said appears unlikely.

Source: PTI

Former long jumper Anju Bobby George topped the women's poll with 53 votes, followed by former India women's hockey captain Rani Rampal with 50, former archer Dola Banerjee with 45 and Olympic bronze-medallist shuttler Saina Nehwal with 43, according to vote figures reported by The Times of India. Usha received 40 votes and former basketball player Anitha Paul Durai six, in a field of six candidates voted on virtually by the existing Sportspersons of Outstanding Merit.

Source: The Times of India (via Apex Sports News)

Why the result matters for December 5

The eight elected Sportspersons of Outstanding Merit — four women and four men — become members of the IOA General Assembly, with the right to vote in and contest the December 5 elections for the new Executive Council that will lead Indian sport for the 2026-2030 term. Under the IOA constitution, a candidate for president must be either a Sportsperson of Outstanding Merit or a member of the General Assembly. Usha became the IOA's first woman president in December 2022 after being elected unopposed through the SOM route, ANI reported in its pre-election coverage.

The four men's SOM seats were settled without a contest on Saturday, when Olympic medallists Gagan Narang, Yogeshwar Dutt and Vijender Singh, along with former table tennis player Kamlesh Mehta, were elected unopposed after eight other candidates withdrew, PTI reported. Electoral Officer Sanjay Kumar Srivastava oversaw the process.

What happens next turns on the federations: if no National Sports Federation nominates Usha to its two General Assembly places, the sitting president will not be eligible to seek a second term on December 5, and the race for the IOA presidency will be contested without her.