Mumbai Hockey Association rejects Hockey India’s offer

Mumbai: The Mumbai Hockey Association (MHA) on Tuesday turned down Hockey India’s offer of an associate membership with the national body, saying they would not accept membership without voting rights.

The Maharashtra state hockey units met HI secretary general Narendra Batra at a city hotel on Tuesday to clear the decks for the much-awaited national federation elections by May 31.

Sources said that Batra offered MHA a membership so that the other two units, Maharashtra Hockey Association and Vidharbha Hockey Association, can merge. But MHA rejected the offer.

“How can we be an associate member? We need proper voting rights and have a say in the functioning of the body. This is like offering us citizenship of a country without being eligible to vote,” said an MHA official.

The Mumbai-based organisation has been demanding separate affiliation and has ruled out a merger with other state associations.

Meanwhile, it was learnt that two factions of the Maharashtra Hockey Association, led by Sambhaji Patil and Ikram Khan, respectively, have merged.

All the associations have submitted the documents requested by HI. They were told to submit their records, minutes of meetings and their workings for the last three years.

“Let’s see how things work out. We have submitted all the documents they had asked for. Now we have to wait for the court’s verdict,” MHA spokesman Joaquim Carvalho said.

The Bombay High Court had asked HI to solve the factionalism within the various state bodies before holding elections. Batra said they will most likely submit a report in the court within a week and announce elections soon after the stay is vacated.