Tarlochan Singh welcomes Randhir Singh's withdrawal from Indian Olympic Assciation elections

Senior Indian Olympic Assciaoton vice-president Tarlochan Singh today welcomed Randhir Singh's decision to withdraw his nomination for the president's post in the upcoming Indian Olympic Association  elections and appealed to all other candidates of his camp to follow suit.

Tarlochan said Randhir has taken the right decision and the new president should be given a free hand in choosing his team like in the past.

"Earlier also IOA elections did not see any contest as everything was done through consensus. Now that Randhir has withdrawn I appeal to all his other candidates to follow suit so that we can avoid a contest," Tarlochan told PTI.

"This has always been the tradition in the IOA and this has been a healthy practice where everything is settled through consensus," he insisted.

Randhir Singh earlier today told PTI that he was going to withdraw his nomination for the post of president.

The veteran sports administrator said that he will be meeting Returning Officer Justice V K Bali at 3:00 pm today to withdraw his nomination.

Randhir's withdrawal has added a new twist to the December 5 polls which have seen a bitter campaign between the rival factions of owing allegiance to Randhir and Abhay Singh Chautala.

Randhir said he has been "pained" by the "slanderous campaign" that has been carried out against him and said that has prompted him to pull out of the elections.

"There has been a slanderous and malicious  campaign against me by some people in the IOA. I will expose them but I do not want to stoop to that level," Randhir said.

Tarlochan, meanwhile, said Chautala should be given a free hand in selecting his team and urged all the members to be united in confronting the challenges ahead.

"Chautala, who is contesting, can now have a free hand in selecting the team. There are lot of challenges in front of IOA and we should all be united in confronting these challenges," he said.