Former India goalkeeper Kalyan Chaubey beat another former national-level footballer Bhaichung Bhutia by a massive margin to be elected as the new president of the All India Football Federation (AIFF) on Friday.
Kalyan beat Bhutia by margin of 33-1. Kalyan, 45, is a former goalkeeper with Mohun Bagan and East Bengal.
Notably, the result went as was expected as former captain Bhutia did not have many supporters in the 34-member voters’ list made up of state association representatives.
Kalyan, a BJP politician who lost the last parliamentary election for the Krishnanagar seat in West Bengal, never played for the India senior team though he was in the squad on few occasions.
Earlier, after the Supreme Court’s order, returning officer, Umesh Sharma, had said that the election for the post will be held on September 2 at the AIFF headquarters in Delhi and the results could be announced either on September 2 or 3.
Initially it was decided by around 28 of the 34 state football associations of the electoral college that only one person will file nomination for each post so that he/she can get elected unopposed however, the decision didn’t go well with few members and took a decision to file the nominations.