WFI polls may face hurdles from states

The election to the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) might hit a roadblock as several state associations have raised objections over the federation’s former president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh forming “parallel bodies” in some states and putting his “family members and people close to him” at the helm of these bodies to ensure control.

Singh headed WFI for 12 years (three terms) and officials of several state units have cited “discrepancies and malpractice” during his tenure to strengthen his grip on the federation. His tenure ended in March, and amid the protest seeking action against Singh over alleged sexual harassment by women wrestlers, fresh elections called by WFI were annulled by the Union sports ministry. An ad hoc body set up by Indian Olympic Association (IOA) runs wrestling now, as has been empowered to hold fresh polls by the end of the month.

One of the demands the protesting wrestlers made in Wednesday’s meeting with sports minister Anurag Thakur was removing Singh’s family members and close associates, and barring them from contesting elections, although it remains to be seen if that can happen without any legal challenge.

Thakur said elections will be held by June 30, though several disputes have cropped up. HT has learnt that at least six state units that were disaffiliated or not recognised after elections -- Maharashtra, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Assam, Tripura and Telangana -- have lodged complaints with the ad hoc panel.

On Friday, the Maharashtra unit (MSWA) sent a legal notice to the ad hoc panel, asking to be reinstated citing a Bombay high court order.

The WFI executive committee under Singh derecognised the Maharashtra, Haryana and Karnataka units on June 30, 2022 on grounds of “misgovernance”, forming ad hoc bodies to run them. MSWA, whose president is Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar, challenged WFI’s order in court and the judgment in November went in MSWA’s favour.

“We are a 70-year-old association and we were disaffiliated without being served a notice. In fact, it was not even on the agenda of the meeting. Now, the court has said MSWA is the recognised body. We conducted our AGM last month. We have asked the ad hoc body to send us all information related to WFI election and other matters,” MSWA office secretary Lalit Landge said.

An MSWA official added: “There are disputes in many states during Singh’s term. WFI elections should not happen until these matters are resolved.”

The Bihar unit (BWA) was dissolved in 2018. WFI gave affiliation to a parallel body with Vishal Singh, son-in-law of Brij Bhushan, as president, in violation of WFI election by-laws, Kameshwar Singh, who was secretary of the disaffiliated unit, said. He sent a letter to the ad hoc body on May 16 seeking BWA’s reinstatement before the elections.

Mulchand Yadav, who was the president of the Madhya Pradesh association, said he was “unconstitutionally” removed by Singh despite winning the 2011 elections. “There should be an inquiry into how many elected state unit officials were removed and new office-bearers appointed. We were thrown out because we did not support Singh on many things,” he has said in his letter to the ad hoc body.

“States such as Assam and Tripura have complained that despite having an elected state association, they were kept out of the WFI general body,” a person aware of the developments said.

The protesting wrestlers have demanded that Brij Bhushan’s son Karan Bhushan, who is WFI vice-president, and sons-in-law Vishal Singh and Aditya Pratap Singh, who are also in WFI’s executive committee, should be barred from contesting the WFI elections. Singh is ineligible to contest as per the government’s Sports Code, having completed three four-year terms.

Selection trials

The trials for the Asian Games and World Championships squads are likely to be pushed back to July second week as the protesting wrestlers – Bajrang Punia, Vinesh Phogat and Sakshi Malik – have sought time to prepare. The last date for sending the Asian Games entries is July 15.

“We want to get maximum time so that they can compete in the Asian Games. We will discuss this with the ad hoc committee members,” coach Gyan Singh, who has been added to the ad hoc panel as a technical expert on the request of the wrestlers, said.

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