At noisy general body meeting, setback for AICF President

Chennai: All India Chess Federation (AICF) President P.R. Venketrama Raja on Saturday suffered a setback in the ongoing power struggle with Secretary Bharat Singh Chauhan as the general body meeting passed the resolutions proposed by the latter.

However, the rival camp is of the view that many of the resolutions were outside the meeting agenda. The meeting was chaotic and how far the resolutions passed by voice vote would stand legal scrutiny is a question.

The general body meeting chaired by Raja was held at Bhopal with Satyajit Sankrit as the Central government’s observer.

According to persons belonging to Chauhan’s camp, representatives from 19 out of 28 affiliated state units who attended the meeting passed the motions that were in his favour.

The meeting was convened mainly to discuss issues pertaining to Bengal Chess Association (BCA).

The general body rejected the clean chit given by a three-member committee appointed by Raja in favour of BCA Secretary International Master Atanu Lahiri earlier in a forgery complaint.

The meeting directed Chauhan to file an FIR in Delhi with regards to the forgery case in the BCA. The meeting also decided to form a committee headed by a retired high court judge to investigate the complaints against the BCA.

“The meeting was chaotic except when Grand Master Dibyendu Barua presented his complaint against me and when I gave my response to the charges leveled against me,” Lahiri told IANS.

“I have already filed a criminal complaint with the West Bengal Police on the issue of forgery and the police are investigating the case. If Chauhan also files a complaint in Delhi, it will most probably come to Bengal police,” Lahiri said.

“The general mood of the meeting that the truth should come out,” he added.

The general body also canceled the elections called by the AICF President on February 10 in Chennai and instead decided to hold the elections on February 9 in Ahmedabad.

The members also rejected the show cause notice issued to the AICF General Secretary by the AICF Raja and rejected the resolutions passed, if any, in the meeting called by the AICF President on December 14 in Chennai.

The ‘Chess in School’ programme was also approved in the meeting. “There is a proper procedure to move a motion and passing it. Nothing of that sort happened. It was chaos and nothing was properly heard. The President was also unhappy with the chaos,” Lahiri added. IANS

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