Former WFI chief Brij Bhushan Sharan
Singh-aide Sanjay Singh was elected as the new president of the Wrestling
Federation of India (WFI).
The Wrestling Federation of India
elections were held on December 21, after several postponements earlier in the
year. The vote took place earlier in the day in New Delhi, and the counting
began soon after.
A panel of Sanjay Singh won the WFI
election by 40 votes while the other panel got 7 votes.
“National Camps (for wrestling) will be
organised. Wrestlers who want to do politics can do politics, those who want to
do wrestling will do wrestling,” Singh told the reporters.
Sanjay served on the WFI’s previous
executive council. Since 2019, he has also served as the national federation’s
joint secretary.
The WFI elections were originally slated
to be held on August 12. However, the Punjab and Haryana High Court, while
holding a hearing on a petition in August, extended the stay on the WFI
elections till September 25.
Elections to the federation, which
oversees wrestling in the country, were initially planned for June this year.
Earlier, this month, Bajrang Punia and
Sakshi Malik met Union Sports Minister Anurag Thakur at his residence in the
national capital for discussions on the WFI polls.
Sakshi’s husband Satyawart Kadian, a
wrestler himself, was also among those who called on the minister.
Speaking to reporters after the meeting,
the wrestlers said they were assured that the government would keep its promise
that no one related or close to Brij Bhushan would get a post in the WFI.
As the results are out the press
conference is to be held by star wrestlers and Olympic medallists Vinesh
Phogat, Bajrang Punia and Sakshi Malik, who earlier came out against the
now-deposed WFI chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, accusing him of sexual
harassment.
ANI
