Pune: Leander Paes, the most decorated player in the history of Indian tennis, took the first step towards contesting for the AITA president’s post on Friday as he applied to join the national federation’s roster of Sportspersons of Outstanding Merit (SOM).“Yes, Leander has expressed his interest. He is the only (tennis) player eligible for Tier 1,” said Hironmoy Chatterjee, a vice-president in the AITA interim executive committee and chief advisor with the Bengal Tennis Association (BTA).Paes is the president of BTA, which posted on Instagram a picture of him standing on the podium in 1996 Atlanta with the singles bronze medal round his neck.“Having seen him conquer the world stage, the Bengal Tennis Association is excited to see his passion applied to the administrative side of the sport. We are incredibly optimistic that Leander’s presence will breathe new life into Indian tennis administration, paving the way for the resurgence of our sport’s past glory,” BTA wrote in an accompanying statement.As per the National Sports Governance Act (2025) and Rules (2026), the SOMs have to be categorised in ten Tiers, with athletes having won an Olympic medal belonging to the uppermost bracket.Besides the Atlanta bronze, Paes, 53, has competed in seven Summer Games and won 18 Grand Slam titles — eight in doubles and 10 in mixed doubles. He is ranked fourth in the list of most wins in Davis Cup history with a win-loss record of 93-35, and ranked top in doubles with 45-13. Beyond the tennis court, Paes joined Trinamool Congress and campaigned for them in the Goa assembly elections in 2021. Early this year, he joined the BJP ahead of the West Bengal assembly elections.Paes did not respond to a request for comment. Tier 2 may comprise athletes who have competed in more than one Olympics and players who competed in one Games belong to Tier 3.Mahesh Bhupathi and Sania Mirza are among the recently retired players who are eligible to be in Tier 2.Rohan Bopanna, who has also competed in more than one Olympics, is ineligible for the current electoral cycle since he last played in a competitive event in November 2025, which is less than one year ago.As per the NSG Act and Rules, the SOM roster is broadly divided into two categories, men and women.Either roster can have a maximum of 20 athletes, two in each tier. Jointly, the SOMs then elect four representatives (two men and two women) to the General Body and two of those four (one male and one female) can be elected to the executive committee, including the president’s post.Crucially, the AITA has set a 60-day deadline of Oct 15 for the players to submit their applications, having begun the process on August 15.It means, the elections for the national body is likely to be in November, well behind the September 30 deadline set by the Delhi High Court. Importantly, the ITF had earlier this year written to the Union Ministry of Sports expressing concern over the federation being under Administrator’s oversight and warned that AITA could lose its membership should the Administrator continue to hold office beyond September 30.Chintan Parikh, the interim president, pleaded helplessness over the issue.“The court is aware about the month’s delay … the honourable bench has asked us to submit the schedule. We are working on the same,” Parikh told The Times of India. “We had requested the Administrator (Retired Justice Gita Mittal) more than once in July to start the process as it had nothing to do with the amendments (to the AITA constitution). “The applications are independent of the size of the roster and the number of representatives could have been decided as per the new constitution later. However, we were asked to wait. “The ITF has been informed of the delay, we have not heard from them,” Parikh added.He declined to comment on Paes’ application. “They (the players) need to file their nominations and get elected by themselves without any interference from AITA. We need to simply monitor that the process is very fair and transparent,” he said.
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