CHENNAI: Only two nominations were withdrawn on the last date as Dushyant Sharma and Kuldip Singh walked out of the race for president and executive member's posts respectively on Saturday. Dushyant's withdrawal means former Commonwealth Games gold medallist Anita Sheoran will contest against Sanjay Kumar Singh, a candidate from the Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh faction, for the top post.
Despite the withdrawal, both Dushyant and Kuldip remain in the fray for other posts. Dushyant also filed his nomination for the treasurer's post while Kuldip will be one of the candidates for the post of joint secretary. Satya Pal Singh Deshwal is running for treasurer's post from another faction.
Similarly, for the secretary's post, one candidate from both groups will be in contention. Darshan Lal is the candidate from the sidelined Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) president Brij Bhushan's camp while Railway Sports Promotion Board (RSPB) secretary Prem Chand Lochab is from another faction.
As was reported by this daily, ID Nanavati and Devender Kadyan will be contesting against each other for the senior vice president's post with the former being nominated by the Uttar Pradesh strongman. "Secretary and senior vice president posts could see some late drama if both the factions agree to share posts. There is a possibility that Lochab can be made secretary to pacify protesting wrestlers," a source keeping track of the developments told this daily.
Candidates from the Brij Bhushan faction withdrew their proxies on Friday. Two of its proxies, one each for the posts of vice president and joint secretary, were supposed to withdraw on Saturday but that didn't happen. It is learnt that a member of the Brij Bhushan faction has allegedly switched his loyalty leading to the issue.
As per the WFI constitution, the executive committee can have one president, one senior vice president, one secretary and one treasurer apart from four vice presidents, two joint secretaries and five executive members (a total of 15).
Preparation and display of the final list of contesting candidates will be done on Monday by 2 PM. Given the nominations filed from both factions, there is a high chance of polling on August 12 during the special general body meeting. Even though he is ineligible to contest, Brij Bhushan, at the moment, has numbers to make sure his candidates win all 15 posts on the executive committee.