The elections to elect Office bearers of the Andhra Pradesh Football Association (APFA) in terms of the election process initiated by All India Football Federation were held on Sunday at the Andhra Pradesh Olympic Association Bhawan, Lal Bahadur Stadium in Hyderabad.

The three-member committee comprising Ch Ramesh (Sports Authority of AP), Prof. K Ranga Rao, Vice President of APOA and Ghulam Rabbani, Member Executive Committee, AIFF assisted Justice T Ch Surya Rao, Retired Judge of Honourable High Court of AP, the Returning Officer for the Election process.

Ajit Upadhyay (Advocate, AIFF, Delhi) and Shyam Agrawal (Advocate, AIFF, Hyderabad) were also present during the entire process.

While there was no contest for the posts of President, Vice-Presidents (three posts) and the Secretary cum Treasurer and Assistant Secretary, voting by secret ballot took place for other posts.

There were four nominations for the post of the Joint Secretaries (three posts) and after voting Basheer Ahmed, Raghunath Reddy P and Jagannadh Rao were declared duly elected to the post of three posts of Joint Secretaries.

Kushal Das, General Secretary, All India Football Federation, welcomed and congratulated the office-bearers. “The contribution of Andhra Pradesh in Indian football is immense. It was such a pity that Andhra football has been dead for so many years due to petty ego problems and politics. I hope we will now be receiving full cooperation from the newly elected body for the promotion of the sport in Andhra Pradesh and Indian football in general. My congratulations to all the office bearers and we are delighted to get back Andhra Pradesh as a recognised Member Association,” he said.

Das also lauded the efforts AIFF Advocate Ajit Upadhyay and the AIFF AGS Administration Col. Mehta for their perseverance in ensuring that the right process was followed and that all existing legal cases were appropriately handled.

Justice T Ch Surya Rao, Retired Judge of Honourable High Court of AP, the Returning Officer declared following as elected office bearers for the Andhra Pradesh Football Association:

Dr. Mohd Ali Rafath, IAS (President)
Srinivas Mali Reddy (Vice President)
Venkateshwar Rao J (Vice President)
Venkatesh NP (Vice President)
Palguna GP (Secretary cum Treasurer)
Basheer Ahmed (Joint Secretary)
Raghunath Reddy (Joint Secretary)
Jagannadh Rao (Joint Secretary)
Shashikant Bhushan Y (Assistant Secretary)

(Report & Picture courtesy AIFF Media)