Indian Olympic Association President N. Ramachandran on Friday "dismissed Narinder Batra’s claim of having requisite support to bring a no-confidence motion against him, saying that the Hockey India boss does not even have enough backers to call a Special General Meeting to propose the move," according to the PTI. In a missive to Batra, Ramachandran said that "he had got letters from only 20 member units (National Sports Federations and state Olympic associations) of the IOA, which have demanded a Special General Meeting to move the no-confidence move," thus falling short of reaching the 50% requirement. He said that the matter should be "considered closed" as Batra had failed to provide the required number of letters of support. The IOA "has 39 NSFs and 35 State Olympic units, according to its website." In the case of a few of them, disputes "have been going on over who should control them." Batra "had claimed support of 19 NSFs and 18 State Olympic associations." In a letter, Ramachandran said, "It is rather unfortunate that you have failed in furnishing to me the letters that you claim to have received from the member units, calling for a SGM to consider the no-confidence motion but have chosen instead to level false and baseless allegations by your two emails on 24th June 2015." In a letter sent on June 22, Ramachandran "had asked Batra to provide him all the letters of support which had demanded a no confidence vote against him within 24 hours so that he can take a decision on the issue" (PTI, 6/26).
