CHENNAI: It was expected when the returning officer Justice MM Kumar, retired chief justice of J&K High Court, revised the schedule of the Wrestling Federation of India election for the third time on Saturday. But not many would have imagined the changes which eventually were made to the electoral college published on Tuesday. Just for the record, the RO said he deferred the dates on the request of the ad hoc committee member Bhupender Singh Bajwa.
One of the prominent changes is the exclusion of the sidelined WFI chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh and his son Karan from the list. The state association will now be represented by its secretary Prem Kumar Mishra and vice-president Sanjay Singh in the special general meeting on August 12.
Besides, the Assam Wrestling Association, which got affiliation only a few days ago, will have a representative from Haryana in the form of BJP leader Devender Kadian apart from its president Ratul Sarma. Railway Sports Promotion Board secretary Prem Chand Lochab, who earlier tried to enter the election process via his home state Rajasthan (and was rejected), will now be a part of it through Gujarat. Himachal Pradesh Wrestling Association secretary Jagdish Kumar’s name has been removed.
The state unit will now be represented by Kuldip Singh and Rajender Singh. Former national champion in 68kg wrestler Anita Sheoran, an inspector with Haryana police and reportedly one of witnesses in the sexual harassment cases against Brij Bhushan, will join Odisha’s secretary Kishor Behera in the meeting. Incidentally, she is the lone woman on the list.
Interestingly, Justice Kumar, while revising the schedule, had made it clear citing the WFI constitution that the state units should only send names of their executive members and not ordinary members or outsiders who are not eligible to be nominated. However, the same seemingly was not followed while preparing the electoral college.
As Maharashtra and Tripura were found ineligible by the returning officer, a total of 50 votes will be cast if the election happens. Despite the changes and his name missing from the electoral college, Brij Bhushan’s faction seems to hold an edge.
“They managed to change six names unconstitutionally. How can they do it when most of them are not members of executive committees of the state units? Despite that, the numbers are with Brij Bhushan. It’s clear that his son will not contest but given the votes he has, candidates backed by him will only win the election unless some kind of compromise formula is devised,” said a source in the know of things.
Sports Code ignored
The electoral college might be out but it seems to be in violation of the National Sports Development Code of India, 2011. The code makes it mandatory to include prominent sportspersons of outstanding merit as members of the respective sports federations. “The strength of such prominent sportspersons with voting rights should be a certain minimum percentage (say 25%) of the total members representing the federation and selection of such sportspersons should be in consultation with this Department,” says the code.
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