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Updated May 10th, 2021 at 19:56 IST

PV Sindhu pens special message as Indian badminton administrator becomes new Assam CM

Indian shuttler PV Sindhu has courted controversy with her high praise for the new Assam Chief Minister, Himanta Biswa Sarma on Twitter.

Reported by: Sharmistha More
PV Sindhu
PV Sindhu | Image:self
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Indian shuttler PV Sindhu has courted controversy with her high praise for the new Assam Chief Minister, Himanta Biswa Sarma. Unanimously elected as President of the Badminton Association of India on April 23, 2017, Sarma remains the head of India's top most body for the game - a sport that Sindhu has won an Olympic silver medal for. While it remains unclear if the CM will now continue to hold his post with the BAI, his polarizing figure has put Sindhu in some hot water with a section of fans.

Assam Elections 2021: PV Sindhu's message for Assam CM enrages fans

Taking to Twitter to congratulate the Assam local, who has been the face of India's ruling party, BJP in North-East India for almost 6 years now, Sindhu wrote that she hoped Sarma's time as the head of the state would prove to be a successful and productive one. However, her comments have not gone down well with fans, who have been quick to point out many of the fairly staggering issues with Sarma's politics, including his anti-mask proclamations and pending cases against him for spreading misinformation ahead of the elections. Sarma succeeded fellow BJP candidate Sarbananda Sonowal as the Chief Minister of the contentious North-Eastern state after the party won with a fair margin.

As with most things in the world, while one-half of her followers seemed highly disappointed with Sindhu for her support for the new Assam Chief Minister, the other half came out in her (and Sarma's) support, heralding a new age for the state. Here are some fan reactions from the post after the Assam Elections 2021:

Tokyo Olympics 2021: Saina Nehwal set to miss out on Olympic berth

With the COVID-19 pandemic throwing the Badminton World Federation's carefully planned schedule into unrest and the dangerous second wave of COVID sweeping over many nations, Indian shuttlers, Saina Nehwal and Kidambi Srikanth are set to miss out on their last Tokyo Olympics 2021 qualification event. So far, only PV Sindhu, B Sai Praneeth and the men’s doubles pair of Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy have managed to fulfil their qualification criteria and book their berths at the Tokyo Olympics.

The last two remaining events in the BWF's schedule that can help Nehwal and Srikanth book Olympic berth are the Malaysia Open (May 25-30) and the Singapore Open (June 1-6). However, with India suffering one of the worst resurgences of the COVID-19 virus in recent months, almost all countries have shut their borders to Indians. Despite pleas from the Indian government and the BAI, it has been reported that the Malaysian government will not make any expectations for sportspersons coming from the country, in effect, dashing the duo's Olympic hopes.

Image Credits: AP

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Published May 10th, 2021 at 19:48 IST

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