New Delhi: Indian Olympic Association (IOA) President PT Usha kept hopes of her re-election bid alive as she was nominated by Ice Hockey Association of India (IHAI) on Thursday as one of its two representatives to the General Body, just days after she lost the Sportspersons of Merit (SOMs) polls.

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Usha was nominated as the female representative of the ice hockey's national federation with secretary Harjinder Singh being the male member.

Each of the 30 National Sports Federations (NSFs) entitled to vote in the IOA elections has been asked by Electoral Officer Sanjay Kumar Srivastava to nominate one male and one female representative to the General before the Thursday 3pm deadline.

There is a clause in the notification issued on Monday by the EO that the nominated member should be a member of the NSF. It is not clear whether Usha -- a track and field legend -- would satisfy that requirement.

"Each representative shall be a member of the concerned NSF Member, a citizen of India, less than 70 years of age, a person of good standing, sound judgment and independent mind with knowledge of and belief in Olympic principles," one of the requirements said.

Submission of the objections to the provisional electoral college will be done on Friday. Scrutiny, verification and disposal of the objections will be done on Saturday before the final electoral roll is published on Sunday.

The 60 members from the NSFs, eight SOMs already elected, two representatives from the Athletes' Commission -- also already picked -- and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) member in India will form the 71-strong electoral college for the IOA Executive Council polls to be held on December 5.

The SOMs and all the 60 members nominated by the NSFs can also stand as candidates for the new Executive Council.

Prominent among those who were nominated as representatives by the NSFs include Adille Sumariwalla (athletics), Rajeev Mehta (fencing), Rahul Bose (rugby), Virender Sachdeva (archery), Kalyan Chaubey (football), Sahdev Yadav (weightlifting), Ajay Patel (shooting), Sanjay Singh (wrestling), Bhupinder Singh Bajwa (wushu) and Bhola Nath Singh (hockey).

There were also at least seven members of the outgoing Executive Council among those nominated by their respective NSFs to the IOA General Body.

Sumariwalla is also talked about as one of the contenders for the top job of the IOA, along with SOMs Gagan Narang and Saina Nehwal.

(This story has not been edited by Mathrubhumi and is published from a syndicated feed.)