Kalikesh Narayan Singh Deo has been elected the new chief of the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI), after he overcame the challenge of VK Dhall by 36 votes to 21, in the elections held at the Constitution Club of India on Saturday.
The elections were conducted under the supervision of Anil Dev Singh, (Retd) Chief Justice of Rajasthan High Court, who was the returning officer (RO), a release said.
A General Body meeting of the NRAI was specially called to conduct the elections. The release said that 57 out of the 67 eligible members turned up to cast their votes which were polled through a secret ballot. Deo has been elected for a period of 12 months.
Deo laid out his priorities after the declaration of the results.
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“It was a wonderful example of a democratic election. I am grateful to all the members for turning up to show their support. We intend to take shooting sport forward. My priority would be to ensure new high-performance centres come up, that NRAI comes up with new programs to spread the word of Shooting, including courses on Governance and ethics and to ensure that Shooting spreads both at the grassroots, as well as at the pinnacle of tournament play,” he said.
VK Dhall said it was a well contested election.
“I had raised a few issues which needed to be raised. There were many anomalies, things which were not in order. I raised the issues, many friends supported me and stood by me. I gave a good fight and I congratulate the winner.”
The new NRAI president’s immediate responsibility would be to ensure the smooth conduct of the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup Final, the year-ending international Shooting sport showdown between the world’s top shooters, scheduled to be held at New Delhi’s Dr. Karni Singh Shooting range from October 13-18, 2024.
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(With inputs from ANI)
