Brij Bhushan faction’s Sanjay Singh becomes new wrestling federation chief

Sanjay Singh, UP Wrestling Association vice president, secured 40 votes as against the seven that the other candidate, Anita Sheoran, polled

New Delhi: Sanjay Singh was elected the new president of the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) with his panel comfortably winning most of the posts in the delayed polls to assert control over the sports body on Thursday.

Sanjay Singh (right) has been elected as the president of the Wrestling Federation of India. (PTI)

Singh, who is part of the Brij Bhushan faction and UP Wrestling Association vice president, secured 40 votes as against the seven that the other candidate, Anita Sheoran, polled. The result to many was a foregone conclusion as the opposing faction simply didn’t have the necessary numbers.

Singh hails from Varanasi and is known to be a close associate of Brij Bhushan, former WFI chief, whose term had ended amid allegations of sexual harassment.

“Jinko kushti karni hai woh kushti karein. Jinko rajneeti karni hain woh rajneeti karein. (Wrestlers who want to compete, they should wrestle. Those who want to do politics, should do politics)” Singh says after sweeping the election.

“It’s triumph for thousands of wrestlers in the country who suffered in the past seven-eight months,” Singh said.

However, it wasn’t a complete loss for Sheoran’s panel as they claimed the key post of secretary general with Prem Chand Lochab, a former RSPB (Railway Sports Promotion Board) secretary, beating Darshan Lal 27-19.

Devender Singh Kadian, who runs a chain of food outlets on national highways and is considered close to the protesting wrestlers, claimed the senior vice president’s post, beating I D Nanavati 32-15.

The Brij Bhushan camp swept all the four posts of vice presidents 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. The new Madhya Pradesh chief minister Mohan Yadav, who did not turn up for the polls, got only five votes in the election for the post of vice president.

Uttarakhand’s Satyapal Singh Deshwal, who is also from the Brij Bhushan camp, is the new treasurer. He beat Jammu and Kashmir’s Dushyant Sharma 34-12. All five executive committee members are also from the outgoing chief’s camp.

The outcome of the polls shows that little is likely to change in the field of Indian wrestling despite the desperate calls from the protesting wrestlers, who had accused Brij Bhushan of sexually harassing women wrestlers.

The wrestlers had officially called off their protest on June 7 after sports minister Anurag Thakur assured them that none of the family members or close associates of Brij Bhushan will be allowed to enter the WFI election fray.

Stage set for lifting United World Wrestling (UWW) ban on WFI

The election of the new executive council will pave the way for lifting the UWW ban on WFI. The world governing body of the game had banned the WFI for not conducting the election on time, forcing Indian wrestlers to compete as neutral athletes at the 2023 world championships.

With inputs from PTI