The command of WFI has now been handed over to Brijbhushan’s confidant, Sanjay Singh becomes the new president, know what the wrestlers said for the president.
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New Delhi. Sanjay Singh, a confidant of outgoing President Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, was successful in registering an easy victory on the post of President here on Thursday in the many pending elections of Wrestling Federation of India (WFI). His panel won 13 out of 15 posts. The results of the elections left the protesting wrestlers deeply disappointed and Olympic medalist Sakshi Malik decided to retire from the sport.
Uttar Pradesh Wrestling Association vice-president Sanjay got 40 votes while his rival and former Commonwealth Games gold medalist Anita Sheoran got only seven votes. Sanjay, who is associated with RSS, is a resident of Varanasi and is a very close associate of Brij Bhushan. Given the outgoing chief’s immense interest in sports, it is expected that Sanjay will take advice from him in policy decisions. “This is the victory of thousands of wrestlers of the country who have suffered losses in the last seven to eight months,” Sanjay told reporters after winning the elections.
When asked about the politics going on inside the federation, he said, “We will answer politics with politics and wrestling with wrestling.” Anita’s panel, however, was successful in retaining the post of General Secretary when Prem Chand Lochab replaced Darshan Lal. Defeated. Lochab, former secretary of Railway Sports Promotion Board, won 27-19. Devendra Singh Kadian, who runs a ‘chain of food joints’ on the national highway and is considered close to the protesting wrestlers, won the post of senior vice president by defeating ID Nanavati 32-15.
The victory of these two candidates from Anita’s panel indicates that some kind of compromise may have been reached as Sanjay won by a huge margin while the votes were divided in the elections for these two posts. As expected after the election results, there was a festive atmosphere in the WFI office and Brij Bhushan’s supporters were shouting victory slogans. WFI’s office is in the bungalow of BJP MP Brij Bhushan and slogans like ‘Sanjay bhaiya kya lekar chale, Brijbhushan ki khadau lekar chale’ were heard there.
Sanjay’s panel won all four posts of vice-chairman, with Delhi’s Jai Prakash (37), West Bengal’s Asit Kumar Saha (42), Punjab’s Kartar Singh (44) and Manipur’s N Phoni (38) winning. Satyapal Singh Deswal of Brij Bhushan’s faction will be the new treasurer. Deswal of Uttarakhand defeated Dushyant Sharma of Jammu and Kashmir 34-12. All five members of the executive committee are also from the faction of the outgoing president. Madhya Pradesh’s new Chief Minister Mohan Yadav got only five votes in the Vice President election. He did not come for the elections. Less than a km away from the WFI office, the country’s top wrestlers Bajrang Punia, Vinesh Phogat and Sakshi, while speaking to the media, expressed disappointment over the results of the WFI elections.
Sakshi decided to retire from wrestling in protest against the election results. It is a different matter that she was struggling for some time and had to face defeat several times in trials against young wrestler Sonam Malik. These three wrestlers were the face of the protest against Brij Bhushan whom they accused of alleged sexual harassment of several female wrestlers, including junior wrestlers.
Sakshi said, “We fought with all our heart but if a man like Brij Bhushan, his business partner and close associate has been elected as the President of WFI, then I quit wrestling. Commonwealth Games gold medalist Sakshi, 31, said, “We wanted a woman president but it did not happen. ”Ahead of the elections, Tokyo Olympics bronze medalist Bajrang Punia and Sakshi had repeatedly requested Sports Minister Anurag Thakur to bar anyone associated with Brij Bhushan from contesting the WFI elections. After this, Brijbhushan’s son Prateek and his son-in-law Vishal Singh did not contest the elections. Bajrang said, “It is unfortunate that the government has not kept its word that no confidant of Brij Bhushan will contest the WFI elections.”
Vinesh said, “Emerging female wrestlers will also have to face exploitation.” Bajrang also said that he does not know whether he wants to continue his career or not. Brijbhushan assured that there would be no vendetta politics and that if the protesting wrestlers wanted to continue wrestling, they would be treated with complete fairness. When Brij Bhushan was asked whether the federation would support the wrestlers who had started protesting against him, he told PTI, “There will be no favoritism.” Everyone will get support from WFI.
He assured, “We have to focus on the game and not on the mistakes of the wrestlers. The federation will not be fair if they have to suffer the consequences of their mistakes.” The top wrestler had managed to garner huge support from various sections of the society during his protest. Their protest however failed on the day when they planned to march towards the new Parliament building on 28 May and Delhi Police removed all the protesters from Jantar Mantar for rioting. The wrestlers officially called off their protest on June 7 after Sports Minister Anurag Thakur assured them that no family member or close associate of Brij Bhushan would be allowed to contest the WFI elections. The election of the new Executive Council will also pave the way for lifting the ban imposed by the global governing body United World Wrestling (UWW) on WFI.
The UW had imposed sanctions on the WFI for not holding the elections on time, forcing Indian wrestlers to compete as neutral players at the 2023 World Championships. The election process had started in July but was delayed due to various court cases. The Supreme Court recently vacated the stay imposed by the Punjab and Haryana High Court, paving the way for the process of electing a new governing body of the WFI.
Disclaimer: IndiaTheNews has not edited this news. This news has been published from PTI-language feed.
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