New Delhi: Hockey India (HI)’s plan to install Suresh Kalmadi as their new president has been scuttled by the International Hockey Federation (FIH) and the ministry of sports and youth affairs.

According to sources, the HI plan was to hold elections on November 18 in Srinagar and get the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) chief elected president.

Former Indian Hockey Federation vice-president Narendra Batra was touted as the new secretary.

The proposal to hold the elections, sources said, has been shot down by the ministry because it was convinced that the state units were yet not ready for it. The HI, sports ministry officials pointed out, has granted affiliation to only 18 state units and major hockey playing states like Punjab, Karnataka, Jharkhand and Tamil Nadu have been left out of the list.

HI, on the other hand, said their aim was to keep the promise to install a duly elected national body for the game within six months. So much so that the present HI secretary general, Mohammed Aslam, who has stopped attending office, is believed to have decided to submit his resignation on November 20.