The secretary of the Table Tennis Federation of India, Kamlesh Mehta, was suspended during the TTFI AGM.
Meghna Ahlawat serves as the president and is the wife of former Haryana Deputy CM Dushyant Chautala. She and Secretary Mehta led different factions within the governing body. Both were elected in December 2022 as part of a political ‘compromise’.
Recently, the two leaders clashed over the scheduling of the AGM. That meeting finally took place on Wednesday. During the session, the secretary was officially suspended.
Yatin Tipnis represents the Maharashtra State Association. He was nominated as the senior joint secretary during the meeting. He will now manage the daily operations of the federation while the secretary’s post remains suspended.
Previously, Kamaleh Mehta organised an Emergency Special General Meeting (SGM) in Mumbai. However, TTFI president Ahlawat expressed this SGM as unconstitutional and invalid in a letter issued on 15th January.
Tipnis, while talking to PTI, stated, “The post of senior joint secretary was vacant, so I was nominated in the AGM. Now that the secretary’s post is suspended, I have been instructed to look after the day-to-day running of the TTFI affairs so that athletes are not impacted. ”.
However, the allegedly former secretary has a different side of the story. According to him, he is yet to be officially notified about this decision.
He expressed, “I have been hearing about the suspension. I have not got anything in writing from TTFI. I have not been able to access the official email since yesterday.”
“Agenda-driven politics is being played, as they (the other faction) never wanted me as secretary in the first place,” further claimed Mehta.
The Delhi High Court already issued a suspension to the TTFI, back in February 2022, asserting “a sorry state of affairs” in the national federation. However, after the fresh election, Ahlawat and Mehta were elected under the Committee of Administrators’ (CoA) supervision.
