Himanta Biswa Sarma re-elected BAI president, Sanjay Mishra becomes secretary; Arun Lakhani new treasurer

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma was re-elected unopposed as the President of the Badminton Association of India (BAI) for another four-year term. Sarma's re-election and other similar developments took place at the Annual General Meeting of BAI, held in Guwahati on Friday.

The re-elected BAI President will continue in this position from 2022 to 2026.

Sarma, who took over the reins of the organisation in 2017, has been instrumental in raising substantial funds for the development of the game over the last four years. He is also the Vice-President of Badminton Asia and a member of the Badminton World Federation (BWF) Executive Council.

Former junior national coach Sanjay Mishra will be the new General Secretary, with incumbent Ajay Kumar Singhania becoming Vice-President in the new Executive Council.

MBA president Arun Lakhani replaces Anbumani Ramadoss as new BAI treasurer

Maharashtra Badminton Association (MBA) President Arun Lakhani will be the new treasurer. Nagpur-based Lakhani was the Vice-President during the previous four-year term.

Maharashtra Badminton Association president Arun Lakhani (L) will be the new BAI treasurer (Pic credit: MBA)

After being re-elected, Sarma said his goal is to ensure further growth of the sport in India.

“Badminton has been in the ascendancy in India for the last two decades. We are committed to continuing that rise by providing better facilities to players and a robust governance system."

Pullela Gopichand starts new innings as BAI Vice-President

Chief National Coach Pullela Gopichand will also make a foray into administration after being elected as Vice-President along with Anbumani Ramadoss and nine others.

The newly-elected Executive Council will have 11 Vice-Presidents alongside eight Joint Secretaries and an equal number of committee members. Former BAI Vice-President Pradeep Gandhe has been elected as one of the executive members of the new committee.

BAI OFFICE BEARERS (2022-2026)

President

Himanta Biswa Sarma

Vice-Presidents

Abdul Bari Siddiqui, Ajay Kumar Singhania, Anbumani Ramadoss, Narhar Thakur, Oma Datt Sharma, Pullela Gopichand, Ratu Techi, Sekhar Chanda Biswas, S Muralidharan, Viraj Sagar Das, and Watizulu Suzumeren Jamir.

Hon. General Secretary

Sanjay Mishra

Hon. Treasurer

Arun Hanumandas Lakhani

Joint Secretaries

Anil Krishna Rao Choughule, Konda Prabhaker Rao, KK Sharma, Mayur V Parikh, N Shyamkumar Singh, Omar Rashid, P Anakamma Choudary, and Surinder Mahajan

Executive Members

BS Mankoti, Bamang Tago, H Lalnunsiama, Krishnanand Jaiswal, Nileen Kumar, Pradeep Srikrishna Gandhe, Pynbianglang Laloo, Sukanta Das, Sanjib Kumar, and Ve Arunachallam.