PANCHUKULA: The Table Tennis Federation of India (TTFI) retained Dushyant Chautala as its chief. The 32-year-old Chautala, who is also the Deputy Chief Minister of Haryana, is arguably the youngest President of any National Sports Federation (NSF) in the country.
In its 84th Annual General Meeting held at a city hotel here on Wednesday, Arun Kumar Banerjee from Uttar Pradesh took over as the secretary general. He now holds the post vacated by Mahinder Pal Singh. TTFI also has a fresh face in Gurpreet Singh as the treasurer.
Incidentally, Banerjee is also the secretary of the Uttar Pradesh Table Tennis Association and was till recently the treasurer of TTFI. The AGM also chose two senior vice-presidents, eight vice-presidents, one senior joint secretary, four joint secretaries, and four Executive Committee members.
Returning Officer and retired Justice Ranjit Singh of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, who supervised the polls, declared them elected unopposed. Ravinder Chaudhry, representing the Indian Olympic Association, was the observer at the AGM.
President Chautala gave full credit to the outgoing secretary general Singh. “I can vouch and, you will all agree with me, that his (Singh’s) four-year term was full of opportunities and our players did exceedingly well during his stint. The players brought laurels to the country, winning a bagful of medals at the CWG in Gold Coast and followed it up with a bronze medal at the Jakarta Asian Games. All of these were possible because of the constant support and cooperation from our state units which helped TTFI improve its functioning,” he said.
The TTFI chief also said that he expected the new secretary general to strive hard and keep up the momentum provided by his predecessor in the last four years. “I am sure with people like Dhanraj Choudhary around, Banerjee will try and set new milestones.
On his part, Banerjee assured that he will function with all sincerity to carry forward the work of his predecessor. “With everybody’s support and guidance, I will definitely try to inspire one and all, besides working to raise the standards of the sport,” he said.
THE OFFICE-BEARERS: President: Dushyant Chautala (Haryana). Senior Vice-President: Sanjay Singh (Bihar) and Rajeev P. Bodas (Maharashtra). Vice-President: Chiranjib Choudhury (Meghalaya), Manjinder Singh Sirsa (Delhi), Rabindra Kumar Parida (Odisha), Vero Nunes (Goa), Sharad Shukla (Chhattisgarh), V. Bhaskar Ram (Andhra), P. Prakash Raju (Telangana) and Om Soni (Madhya Pradesh). Secretary General: Arun Kumar Banerjee (Uttar Pradesh). Senior Joint Secretary: Yash Pal Rana (Himachal Pradesh). Treasurer: Gurpreet Singh (Delhi). Joint Secretary: Prakash Tulpule (Maharashtra), Jai Kumar Sinha (Jharkhand), Jayesh Acharya (Madhya Pradesh) and Sailoliana Sailo (Mizoram). Executive Members: Prince Vipon (Uttarakhand), Rajan Sharma (J&K), Kuber Bhandari (Sikkim) and Kanchan Basak (Women quota, Maharashtra).
