CHENNAI: With a new regime in the offing, changes were on the cards. And it happened within hours after Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh's faction won 13 out of 15 posts in the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) held in New Delhi on Thursday. As Brij Bhushan loyalist Sanjay Kumar Singh became the WFI president comfortably defeating former CWG gold medallist Anita Sheoran 40-7, the new panel during the emergency general meeting held at a city hotel decided to cancel all the decisions taken by the ad-hoc committee.
Last week, the ad-hoc panel, entrusted to manage the sport in the absence of the WFI, announced to hold senior nationals from January 2 to 5 in Jaipur. The panel comprising Bhupender Singh Bajwa and Suma Shirur also came up with the new selection criteria for Olympic qualification.
"All the decisions taken by the ad-hoc panel have been cancelled," a WFI source in the know of things told this daily. "We will decide the new dates and venue for the senior nationals. Besides, the selection criteria for the 2024 Olympics and other international events will be announced after the meeting of the executive committee soon," added the source.
The Sanjay Singh-led body also announced to hold the U-15 and 20 national championships in Gonda, Uttar Pradesh — the home turf of Brij Bhushan — from December 28 to 30. "Holding the event was important as most of the wrestlers would have crossed the age limit by the end of the year. Gonda was chosen as the venue because no other state units would have managed to host the competition at such short notice," added the source.
The rival faction managed to win the two posts — secretary general and senior vice-president — as its candidates Prem Chand Lochab, former secretary of the Railway Sports Promotion Board (RSPB), and Devender Kadyan, a renowned hotelier, got elected.
Interestingly, Kadyan, who beat Brij Bhushan's loyalist and veteran administrator ID Nanavati 32-15 for the senior vice-president's post, along with Lochab also attended the meeting. "We reached there late but they told us everything in detail. We agreed with all decisions taken in the meeting," Kadyan told this daily.
Cross voting
Going by the attendance, 47 voters turned out for the polling with newly sworn-in Madhya Pradesh chief minister Mohan Yadav, a representative each from Uttarakhand and Chandigarh not attending the meeting. Among those present, 37 voters were from Brij Bhushan's camp while 10 were from rival faction — 2 Assam, 2 Himachal Pradesh, 2 J&K, 1 Gujarat, 1 Haryana and 2 Odisha. Despite it, Anita could manage only seven votes while Sanjay garnered 40. Similarly, Kadyan secured 32 votes while Nanavati managed only 15. Lochab defeated Darshan Lal 27-19.
"Everything was decided in advance otherwise how the two from rival faction would have been elected when they had only 10 votes. Besides, many from our group got less than 37 votes which means our members cast their votes for candidates from another group. The seat-sharing formula must have been devised to make sure elections are held," one of the member of an affiliated state unit said.
Meanwhile, the newly elected WFI chief held the result triumph for the country's wrestlers. "It's a triumph for thousands of wrestlers in the country who suffered in the past 7-8 months. We will respond to politics with politics and wrestling with wrestling," Sanjay Singh told reporters after the victory.
The Brij Bhushan camp swept all 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, is the treasurer. He defeated Jammu and Kashmir's Dushyant Sharma 34-12. All five executive committee members were also from the outgoing chief's camp.
The country's top wrestlers including Bajrang Punia, Sakshi Malik and Vinesh Phogat started a protest against Brij Bhushan in January this year alleging him of sexual harassment. They managed to garner support from different sections of society. However, their move to march towards the new Parliament building on May 28 backfired as they were booked under various sections by the Delhi police and removed from the protest site.