Devendra Jhajharia Elected Paralympic Committee Of India President, Jayawant Secretary General

Devendra Jhajharia elected Paralympic Committee of India president, Jayawant secretary general (Image Source: IANS)

Former Paralympian Deepa Malik: Two-time Paralympics champion Devendra Jhajharia has been elected unanimously as the new president of the Paralympic Committee of India (PCI).

Earlier, the sports ministry had suspended the committee after it failed to conduct elections on time. But as the dates of the polls were announced, Jhajharia filled his nomination for the top post, and won it.

International coach and referee Jayawant Hammanawar (Goa Paralympic Association) was elected secretary general of the committee.

Vice-presidents are R Chandrashekhar (Tamil Nadu) and Satya Prakash (Haryana). Whereas, international para badminton athlete Sunil Pradhan (Odisha) was appointed as treasurer.

Former Paralympian Deepa Malik was the previous president of the committee. She had taken charge of the organisation in 2020.

Jhajharia has won two gold medals for India at the Paralympics during his playing career. He bagged his first Paralympics gold in Athens in 2004 and the second one in Rio in 2016. He also claimed a silver medal in the Tokyo Paralympics.

Earlier, this week another news came that Jhajharia will be contesting in the Lok Sabha elections from his hometown Churu, Rajasthan on a Bhartiya Janta Party ticket.