New Delhi, Jun 7 (PTI) Virender Kanwar from Himachal Pradesh on Saturday became the president of Volleyball Federation of India after defeating Nagaland’s Prem Singh Bajor by a mere two votes in the long-awaited polls that picked an interim panel, here on Saturday.

Kanwar polled 33 votes, two more than his close rival Bajor. The third candidate in the fray — Bihar’s Anand Shankar — did not get a single vote.

Ramanand Choudhary from Rajasthan became the new general secretary after getting 33 votes, beating Maharashtra’s Nilesh Jagtap by four votes.

Telangana’s N V Hanmanath and Susanta Biswa from Assam received 36 votes each to win vice president election, while Hari Singh Chauhan (Madhya Pradesh) won the election for the post of treasurer.

| Anand Shankar and Kuldeep Vats won the two joint secretary posts.

Binoy Josh, Mithlesh Kumar, Uttam Raj, S Ramadasse and Partha Das were elected as members of the Executive Committee.

A three-member steering committee which has Rohit Rajpal, Stephen Bock (FIVB representative), and Hitesh Malhotra (FIVB head of empowerment) as members will support the elected panel.

Rajpal was also chairman of the ad-hoc panel that managed the affairs of the Federation till the elections.

Court-appointed Returning Officer Justice P. Krishna Bhat (Retd.) conducted the polls where representatives from the Sports Ministry, Indian Olympic Association, and the International Volleyball Federation (FIVB) were also present as observers. PTI AT AT TAP