Till Saturday, the elections promised some keen contests, especially for the posts of president, two vice-presidents and secretary. But these have come to naught after all the challengers chose to withdraw their nominations.The big showdown was obviously for the top post, where former mayor and businessman Manmohan Singh Bedi had filed his papers against incumbent Dilbagh Singh Bakshi. It was a mysterious move, as the owner of the Sher-e-Punjab group of hotels, whose net worth is estimated at Rs 500 crore, had belonged to the same faction as Bakshi. Bakshi said, ``He was one of us and I was one of them. I was feeling very small that he was standing against me. It was a nice of him to have withdrawn in my favour.''

It was Bakshi's close associate CharanjitSingh Chadha, chairman of Punjab Co-operative Bank, who acted as a mediator and persuaded Bedi to withdraw his nominations. Chadha told Express Newsline, ``Bakshiji has given new life to the BHA. Bediji appreciated his work and decided to pull out.''

Three nominations were filed for the two vice-presidents posts but with the withdrawal of Prakash Chand Agarwal, Phulel Singh Sujlana and Virinder Singh Anand will be elected unopposed.

Four of the five nominees for the honorary secretary's post -- Sailesh Agarwal, Olympian Gurbux Singh Grewal, P S Sujlana and S S Thakur -- have pulled out of the race, clearing the decks for incumbent K L Passi to serve another term.

Olympians Grewal, Iqbaljit Singh, Joaquim Carvalho and Darryl D'Souza are likely to take their places in the committee as members, as will MP Agarwal, Jaspal Singh Bhasin, Charanjit Singh Chadha, GS Chandhok and DS Gujral. The induction of the first three is an obvious continuation of the BHA and Hockey Association of Mumbai (HAM) patch-up. Toaccomodate them, K S Jaggi, G S Saigal and H C Sawhney withdrew their nominations. The elected members have the powers to co-opt three additional members to complete the 17-member committee.