Already buried under the weight of doping and corruption charges, the Indian Weightlifting Federation (IWF) will have to dig deep to come out clean when the body’s executive council meets in Lucknow on Thursday to elect its new secretary general. The post fell vacant after Balbir Singh Bhatia was forced to resign following charges of accepting money to help lifter Geeta Rani get the Arjuna Award.

Like several times in the past, this time too the election is expected to be one-sided. Sources indicate that the tide seems to be totally in favour of BR Gulati, despite opposition from Sahdev Yadav, the treasurer of the IWF, Punjab’s Tara Singh and Andhra Pradesh’s Venkatarama.

Gulati, an office-bearer from Maharashtra, is said to have the blessings of the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) president Suresh Kalmadi.

Never clean

Predicting the outcome of the Lucknow election may be easy, but what is hard to say is whether the new secretary will be able improve the functioning of the body.

The IWF has developed a poor reputation because hardly a camp had gone by — especially, just before and after the Athens Olympics — without any doping incident being reported. The international body had suspended the federation for a year after the Athens Olympics and Melbourne Commonwealth Games scandals.

The IWF had to cough up nearly $10,000 — originally it was asked to pay up $ 50,000 — as fine during the Bhatia regime just to get readmitted.

Meanwhile, Sports Minister MS Gill is said to be keeping especially close watch over the functioning of the IWF. He has instructed his staff to monitor the federation and asked for papers from both the Sports Authority of India and the federation regarding the recent doping charges on Kavita Devi during the Olympic qualifiers in Japan, from where she was sent back.

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