He oozes confidence from every pore. The country’s most powerful sports administrator doesn’t look like he’s spent a single sleepless night worrying over Commonwealth Games 2010, embroiled in one scandal after another. Instead, in a blue silk shirt and black trousers, he looks like he’s just won a medal.

“The Games will be successful,” says Suresh Kalmadi.

There is little in his demeanour to indicate that Kalmadi is under attack. Some, however, believe that he may have finally met his comeuppance. And while his many critics are enjoying the sight of a cornered Kalmadi, he may not have the immediate, ignominious exit they would like to see. What’s clear, though, is that Kalmadi has never had it this bad.

And the man has only himself to blame. His critics say his affable air hides an overbearing style, which has earned him enemies in his rise from head of the Pune Region Amateur Athletics Association (PRAAA) to the president of the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) over 30 years.

So how did the 66-year-old air force pilot-turned-businessman-politician become the unquestioned supremo of Indian sports or, as hockey player Pargat Singh publicly called him, head of the sports mafia?

Blame it on the Indian sports system, beset by patronage, coteries and corruption. “He has undermined the system,” says former Indian Hockey Federation head K.P.S. Gill. “Anyone as clever, rich and ruthless as Kalmadi can rise to the top the way he did,” says Pargat Singh.

But the man in the hot seat is insouciant. He stresses that he doesn’t interfere in federations, but seeks to ensure that India is not just known for cricket. “I want to do my best to promote other sports.”

Kalmadi made his entry into sports administration in the late 1970s. Some Pune athletes, unhappy with Anil Sule, then PRAAA president, wanted someone dynamic and moneyed to replace him. Kalmadi appeared to fit the bill.

He had just been appointed president of the Maharashtra Youth Congress. After leaving the IAF, Kalmadi had returned to Pune, where his father, originally from Karnataka, was a doctor. Kalmadi bought the Pune Coffee House in 1974 and settled behind the counter. Soon, he came into contact with Sharad Pawar, then a Congress heavyweight, and that changed his destiny.

When he was approached to contest against Sule, he agreed. Some deft manoeuvring by his supporters prompted Sule to withdraw in his favour. A few months later, Kalmadi was asked to contest the elections to the Maharashtra State Athletics Association but was diffident about taking on the Speaker of the Assembly, S.K. Wankhede, who was seeking re-election. Just before the election, a section of the press speculated on Wankhede’s defeat. Realising that Kalmadi was a serious contender, Wankhede withdrew.

Kalmadi got his first taste of clout in 1985 when he was made the chairman of the selection committee of the Athletics Federation of India (AFI). He saw in it an opportunity to select coaches, send people on foreign trips and woo voters. He put the strategy to good use: four years later, he was AFI president.

Meanwhile, his political career, which had flagged when he quit the Congress to join Pawar’s Congress (S) in 1978, picked up with his entry into the Rajya Sabha in 1982. Business also started looking up as his family bagged the Maruti dealership for Pune when the car major started operations in 1983.

Through the early 1980s, Kalmadi put his MP status to good use, lobbying for athletics and for Pune, changing its image from that of a sleepy to a happening city. He started the Pune International Marathon in 1983, organised a run in 1986 in which then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi participated, and hosted races which featured top international athletes. He started an annual cultural extravaganza and a film festival. That helped him win friends and earned him the reputation of an achiever.

“Kalmadi is a doer. He will not relax when he has something to get done,” Digvijay Singh, former Organising Committee (OC) member and head of the National Rifle Association of India, told The Telegraph days before his death, when asked about the delays in preparations for the Games. He is also a great fighter, notes Paresh Nath Mukherjee, secretary of the Archery Association and vice-president of the IOA.

Consider how he became IOA president — a post that brings enormous clout with it, since all sports federations have to be affiliated to it to participate in international events.

Kalmadi had contested unsuccessfully twice against the then president, Tamil Nadu media baron B.S. Adityan, in 1988 and 1992. In 1996, Kalmadi took no chances. Adityan, says an associate, only lobbied within the sports community, but Kalmadi spread his net to the political arena as well, since most of the electorate — sports federation and state olympic association (SOA) bosses — were politicians. Kalmadi even managed to win over the current secretary general, Randhir Singh, who supported Adityan. “We were 10 votes ahead,” says the Adityan supporter. “Then the tables suddenly turned.”

Kalmadi had arrived.

And he made sure he stayed there. He has managed this, says the office-bearer of a boxing federation, by placing loyalists in SOAs and sports federations, ensuring him a vote-bank. The IOA is also filled with Kalmadi supporters.

Kalmadi incurred little resistance from the sports fraternity. “The sports bureaucracy is full of spineless people,” rails Pargat Singh. Of the 30-odd federations, says an insider, only 20 are active. The rest are either one-man shows or exist only on paper.

Nonsense, says Kalmadi. “All sports federations hold their individual elections. I have no time to interfere in them. But I become friendlier with all those who work for sports.”

Clearly, Kalmadi’s strategy worked. The only challenge to him came in the 2000 IOA elections, when Haryana politician Abhay Singh Chautala entered the fray. Chautala’s backers switched over to Kalmadi, who was also supported by Adityan’s group. “Of the two, Kalmadi was the better choice,” says the Adityan supporter. In 2004 and 2008 he was re-elected unopposed.

Getting people on board isn’t difficult. Kalmadi, who is said to see people as for or against him, uses a two-pronged strategy. He either charms or intimidates them, say sports administrators.

He throws lavish parties and woos sportspersons, administrators, politicians and journalists with plum posts, foreign junkets and other freebies. “Why do I need to woo anyone?” counters Kalmadi. And he holds he hasn’t hosted a single party for the past two years, barring official ones related to the Games.

Administrators who don’t fall in line are often threatened with disaffiliation of the federations they head. The only recourse, if that happens, is to sue. “He has money and he challenges us to move court. We can’t afford that and succumb,” says an administrator. Kalmadi denies the allegations.

But in January Pargat Singh declared that Hockey Punjab, of which he is secretary, was told it would get affiliation only if it backed Kalmadi’s candidature as the president of Hockey India (HI). Maharashtra Hockey Association (MHA) secretary Ikram Khan also alleged to The Telegraph that Kalmadi’s supporters tried to browbeat MHA president Victor Ellis to withdraw Khan’s name as its nominee for HI president and propose Kalmadi’s. When that didn’t work, the Maharashtra Olympics Association (MOA) disaffiliated the MHA.

“There were some complaints about Hockey Punjab, but that was sorted out,” deadpans Kalmadi, who also denies Khan’s allegations. “Why do I need to go down to that level? How can I do this when I am not president of the MOA? Pawar is; will he allow me to do this?”

The current imbroglio, unfortunately, has overshadowed his contribution to sports, though critics say the AFI life president is also responsible for the mess Indian sports is in. “Look at the state of Indian athletics,” scoffs Gill.

And yet there is a grudging admiration for his ability to put in 19-hour days and his go-getting spirit. “He did try to give a boost to sports other than cricket,” concedes an administrator who is a critic. “It is true that many don’t like the way he functions in the OC, but he has been working hard for the past three years to make the Games successful,” says BJP leader V.K. Malhotra, president, Archery Association of India, and OC member.

Drumming up a few hundred crores, whether for a Pawar-for-PM campaign in 1991 or to lobby with other countries to back India’s claims to host international sports events, is easy for him, given his awesome networking skills. The Congressman even got the National Democratic Alliance to support his bid for the Commonwealth Games. “He can get anything,” says a sports administrator.

A visionary architect of Indian sports or sports mafia head? Will the real Kalmadi please stand up?