CHENNAI: The most-searched wrestling federation on Monday would be the Assam Wrestling Association. Especially after it went to court and stayed the Wrestling Federation of India's election. The newly-formed state unit flexed its muscle apparently because their affiliation with the WFI has been spurned on multiple occasions. And according to the newly-elected president, Ratul Sarma, it’s because if they continued to keep silent they would never have got affiliation. Sarma also said that they were seeking affiliation after the recent June 4 election but there was no positive outcome. Getting an affiliation without an Annual General Meeting might be tricky.
“It’s for the wrestlers of the state of Assam and nothing else,” Sarma told this daily on Monday. He said that their nomination request to the returning officer (RO) who is conducting the elections of the WFI was not accepted. And that forced him to go to court on Sunday, the last day of the nomination. He claimed that there was a resolution during the 2014 AGM in Gonda to give affiliation to the Assam unit but nothing happened.
The Assam Wrestling Association has been active since 1989 and they have conducted major events like National Games in 2007 in Guwahati. “In 2003, at the Asian cadet wrestling championships in Taiwan, Laishram Sharmila won gold and even after that, we have won medals at various nationals. So after being active and being involved in so many things, we don’t know why they had been spurning our requests for affiliations.”
“In the 2014 AGM there was a resolution that we should be accepted as a full-fledged unit and we had been requesting them since but for some reason or the other, nothing has transpired,” said Sarma. “We have been writing to them since 1989 and even our previous president Pijush Hazarika had tried to get affiliation and even met the president of the WFI and requested him a number of times but we did not get any positive response from them. Since he (Mr Hazarika) was elected as Assam Table Tennis Association president, I became the president of Assam Wrestling Association in the election held on June 4.”
Sarma said that they had been talking to the WFI even before and after the elections but strangely when the election notice was sent there was nothing for the Assam unit. “They did not send any notification to us and still we requested the RO but nothing happened. So we thought we should request the honourable High Court for a stay because despite requesting them on multiple occasion there was no response. We hope something positive will come out of this.”
When pointed out that usually an Annual General Meeting of a federation can give affiliation to a new body and in the case of WFI that will take place only after election, Sarma said that the 2014 house had accepted its request for affiliation and that should be considered.
“We have been communicating with them since 1989 and we felt that even after this election they will not give any response so we thought we should approach the court,” he said. “We cannot leave our wrestlers’ future in the dark and this is for their interest.”