The Indian Olympic Association (IOA) may be getting ready to host the next edition of Commonwealth Games and in race for the 2036 Olympics bid, but PT Usha – the legendary athlete who had been fronting both bids – is unlikely to be a part of it soon. Having lost the contentious online elections for a place among the four women Sportspersons of Outstanding Merit (SOM), she has alleged ‘fraud’ and sought intervention from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The 62-year-old’s ambitions of a second term at the helm took a body blow when she finished fifth among six women candidates for the election of SOM. Anju Bobby George, former long jumper and a bronze medallist in 2003 Worlds, topped the poll with 53 votes, followed by former hockey captain Rani Rampal (50), former archer Dola Banerjee (45) and Olympic medallist shuttler Saina Nehwal (43). Usha received 40 while and former basketball player Anitha Paul Durai just six.

The election of women SOMs has brought the power struggle in the umbrella body out into the open with the battlelines being drawn between two fellow Malayalis - Usha and Anju. The former, whose four-year reign was marked with serious acrimony between her and the executive committee members which brought all activities in a limbo for close to two years, wants a review of Anju’s tally of votes in particular.