New Delhi, Dec 21 (PTI) Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh loyalist Sanjay Singh was on Thursday elected as President of the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) with his panel comfortably winning 13 of the 15 posts in the much-delayed polls – an outcome that triggered outrage among protesting wrestlers and Sakshi Malik announced her retirement from the sport.
The trio of Bajrang Punia, Vinesh Phogat and Malik had launched an agitation against Brij Bhushan in January this year, aggressively pushing for a change of guard in the WFI but a close associate of the BJP MP is now at the helm.
Sanjay Singh, the UP Wrestling Association vice-president hailing from Varanasi, secured 40 votes as against seven of his rival and 2010 Commonwealth Games gold medallist Anita Sheoran.
The panel of Sheoran though managed to win the key post of secretary-general with Prem Chand Lochab, a former Railways Sports Promotion Board (RSPB) secretary, defeating Darshan Lal 27-19.
Devender Singh Kadian, who runs a chain of food joints on National Highways and is considered to be close to protesting wrestlers, claimed the senior vice president’s post, beating I D Nanavati 32-15.
The victory of these two candidates from the Sheoran camp suggests a compromise formula must have been worked out since Sanjay Singh won by a huge margin while votes were split in the elections for these two posts.
“It’s a triumph for thousands of wrestlers in the country who suffered in the past 7-8 months,” Sanjay Singh told reporters after his huge win.
“We will respond to politics with politics and wrestling with wrestling,” Sanjay replied when asked about politics being played within the federation.
Given the tremendous interest outgoing chief Brij Bhushan has in the sport, it is expected that RSS-affiliate Sanjay Singh, who runs a construction business, will consult him in key policy decisions.
The WFI office expectedly wore a festive look with Brij Bhushan supporters shouting victory slogans.
Slogans such as ‘Sanjay bhaiya kya le ke chale, Brij Bhushan ki khadau le ke chale’ (What did Sanjay carry with him, Brij Bhushan’s wooden slippers) reverberated inside the BJP MP’s bunglow that houses the WFI office.
The Brij Bhushan camp swept all the four vice-president posts 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 elections.
Uttarakhand’s Satyapal Singh Deshwal, who is also from Brij Bhushan camp, was elected as the new treasurer. He beat Jammu and Kashmir’s Dushyant Sharma 34-12.
All five executive committee members were also from the outgoing chief’s camp.
The new Madhya Pradesh chief minister Mohan Yadav, who did not turn up for the polls, got only five votes in the VP election.
Sakshi quits sport =========== Less than one kilometre away from the WFI office, the country’s top wrestlers Punia, Phogat and Malik addressed the media, expressing their disappointment with the outcome of the polls.
Sakshi, as a mark of protest against the election result, quit the sport. She had been struggling of late and had lost trials to young wrestler Sonam Malik several times before winning a gold at the Birmingham CWG Games in 2022.
The three wrestlers were the face of the protests against the BJP MP, who they had accused of sexually exploiting several women wrestlers, including juniors.
“We fought from our heart but if a man like Brij Bhushan, his business partner and a close aide is elected as the president of WFI, I give up wrestling. From today onwards you will not see me on the mat,” a teary-eyed Sakshi said and kept her shoes on the table in a dramatic announcement.
“We wanted a female president but that did not happen,” the 31-year-old added.
Ahead of the elections, Tokyo Games bronze medallist Punia and Malik had requested Sports Minister Anurag Thakur to stop anyone associated with Brij Bhushan from contesting the WFI polls.
Consequently, neither Brij Bhushan’s son Prateek nor son-in-law Vishal Singh entered the fray.
“It’s unfortunate that the government did not stand by its word that no Brij Bhushan loyalist will contest WFI election,” Bajrang said, adding that he is also not sure if he wants to continue his career.
“Upcoming women wrestlers will also face exploitation,” feared Vinesh.
Vendetta will not be pursued =================== Brij Bhushan assured that no vendetta politics will be played and even if the protesting wrestlers want to continue wrestling, they will be treated with all fairness.
“There will be no partiality. All will get support from WFI,” Brij Bhushan told
Source: PTI News
