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 The All India Chess Federation Elections for the 2005-2009 was held on September 25 at the Wallajah Room in Hotel Taj Connemara in Chennai. It went on smoothly and held no surprises as P.T.Ummer Koya and their men were disqualified for not paying the membership fees.
"We have the support of 21 out of the 32 members in the AICF," claimed N.Srinivasan who was reelected unopposed on Sunday. Koya and others did not have the numbers and hence did not come he added.
The elections put to rest eight months of uncertainty in the AICF. "We toiled hard for eight months to get this man out of this post," said Sundar referring
Koya.
Justice A.K.Rajan was asked by the press if there will be one more election. "I am here to preside over the meeting and conduct the elections and discharge my duties and handover a report to the Madras High Court," replied Rajan as he left the hall.
Earlier, the Judge announced the results and there were no surprises. All posts were bagged by the Srinivasan-Sundar panel. While four of their Vice President Candidates polled 39 votes out of possible 39, two of their candidates, Pradeep Jain and Sanjiv Kumar polled 38 votes leaving two votes for Gularia of Himachal Pradesh. One of their supporters could not participate in the elections but came later.
"Koya is out and this is great news for chess players in India," said D.V.Sundar, the newly elected Secretary of the AICF. Sundar had previously been Vice President of the AICF. IMs V.Saravanan and P.Konguvel of the CPAI were present after the poll was taken.
The election of office bearers of AICF for the 2005-2009 term went off smoothly and the mood was for action against the previous Secretary P.T.Ummer Koya. The President of the AICF said he is instructing the Secretary to take necessary action. Members wanted action against P.T.Ummer Koya and S.L.Harsh, for collecting entry fees in Asian and Commonwealth Championships. Most of the action will be placed on the agenda and decided in the next meeting, said the President
N.Srinivasan.
 The mood of the 64-strong AICF electorate on Sunday was clear. It was an anti-Koya vote. Three members of the General Body had played the National `A'. Arvind Kumar Sinha who comes from Patna said, "a few years back we thought removing Koya was impossible."
International Master Neeraj Kumar Mishra of Jamshedpur said, "I have been humiliated as a player by Koya. Thanks to his 10% prize money cut from us, we chess players got united."
The third player, International Master Manuel Aaron, also nine times national champion from Chennai floated the coalition of Tamil Nadu, Delhi and Maharashtra against Koya's anti chess player policies.
At last night's dinner reception, R.M.Dongre of Maharashtra said we drink to celebrate success and I am sure some are also drinking but in sorrow!
Elected Office Bearers:
President: N.Srinivasan
(TN)
Honorary Secretary: D.V.Sundar
Treasurer: Bharat Singh Chauhan
(Del)
Vice Presidents: A.Bhakthavachalam (Pon), R.M.Dongre (Mah), Pradeep Jain (Har), R.Ralte (Miz), Sameer A.Salgaocar (Goa), Sanjiv Kumar (Bih).
Joint Secretaries: F.Anil (MP), Melvin Khryiem (Meg), N.K.Mishra (Jha), H.K.Tiwari (Pun), Udayan Kanti Ghosh (Ben), Dr Vipnesh Bharadwaj (Chd).
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