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On July 31, Monday, the member of the Lok Sabha from Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) and the outgoing President of the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh has confirmed that no member of his family will contest the upcoming elections of the wrestling body. The 66-year-old also stated that today is the last day for filing a nomination for the elections of the federation.
For the unversed, the WFI elections, which were initially going to take place from July 6 to 11, were postponed for the time being by the Indian Olympic Association (IOA). Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh is ineligible to contest in the upcoming elections after completing 12 years as the head of the wrestling body, which is the maximum time allowed for a particular post as per the rules of the Sports Code.
He is currently facing allegations levelled on him by the women’s wrestlers in regards to sexually harassing them, which were filed by the six top wrestlers, including Olympic medalists Bajrang Punia, Sakshi Malik, and World Championship medalist Vinesh Phogat. On July 20, the BJP MP was granted regular bail by a Delhi court in connection with the sexual harassment case.
In an exclusive chat with PTI, the 66-year-old was quoted as saying, “Today is the last day for filing of nominations for the federation’s elections (Wrestling Federation of India, WFI)...Nobody from my family is filing a nomination.”
Currently, the daily operations of the WFI are being managed by Bhupender Singh Bajwa, who is the member of the ad-hoc committee of the Indian Olympic Association. Moreover, the nominations for the WFI will get scrutinised on August 2 and the final list of candidates will come out on August 7.
