Sports Ministry appoints 20-member National Sports Election Panel

Two former Chief Election Commissioners of India feature in the 20-member National Sports Election Panel that would oversee the electoral process in the country's sports bodies going forward. The NSEP's formation was mandated 2025 and the Sports Ministry unveiled it on Thursday through a gazette notification."In exercise of the powers conferred 16 of the National Sports Governance Act, 2025 (), read with the National Sports Governance (Removal of Difficulties) Order, 2026, the Central Government hereby notifies ... the members of the National Sports Election Panel for the purpose of section 16 of the said Act, to act as Electoral Officers for overseeing the conduct of free and fair elections of the National Sports Bodies," stated the Ministry notification.The former CECs, who have been named in the panel, are Achal Kumar Jyoti, whose one-year tenure ended in 2018, and Sunil Arora, who served a longer term from 2018 to 2021.Former Election Commissioner Anup Chandra Pandey is another senior member of the panel, which was required to have a 20-strong roster.There are three former Deputy Election Commissioners of India in the panel -- Sandeep Saxena, Sudhir Tripathi, and Umesh Sinha.Major sports bodies that are due to hold elections this year are the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) and the All India Football Federation (AIFF) among others.The NSEP will nominate the Electoral Officer from its roster to oversee the conduct of polls for Executive Committees as well as athletes' commissions in the sports bodies.The NSEP's roster is to be maintained .Deadline extended for NSTThe Sports Ministry, in another notification, has extended the deadline to submit applications for positions in the National Sports Tribunal 11. It is the seventh such extension and continues the delay in NST's formation. Once instituted, the NST would be handling all sports disputes in the country, ending the prolonged legal battles that have affected sports administration and selection processes.The National Sports Election PanelAchal Kumar Jyoti, Former Chief Election Commissioner of India Sunil Arora, Former Chief Election Commissioner of IndiaAnup Chandra Pandey, Former Election Commissioner of IndiaAlok Kumar, Former State Election CommissionerChandrashekhar Bhatt, Former State Election CommissionerDalip Singh, Former State Election CommissionerHarish Chandra Joshi, Former State Election CommissionerNarendra Kumar, Former Election CommissionerR. Parasuram, Former State Election CommissionerRajeev Sharma, Former State Election CommissionerS K Srivastava, Former State Election CommissionerSanjay Prasad, Former State Election CommissionerUrvinder Pal Singh Madan, Former State Election CommissionerVaresh Sinha, Former State Election CommissionerSandeep Saxena, Former Deputy Election Commissioner of IndiaSudhir Tripathi, Former Deputy Election Commissioner of IndiaUmesh Sinha, Former Deputy Election Commissioner of IndiaAjay V Nayak, Former Chief Electoral OfficerRanbir Singh, Former Chief Electoral OfficerUmang Narula, Former Chief Electoral Officer.(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited . It is published from a syndicated feed.)