Former WFI chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh's aid Sanjay Singh has been elected the new president of the Wrestling Federation of India. After numerous postponements earlier in the year, the Wrestling Federation of India elections were held on Thursday, December 21. The voting was held earlier in the day in New Delhi and the counting began soon after the voting process ended.
The election for the top posts in the Wrestling Federation of India also paves the way for the global wrestling body, United World Wrestling, to lift the suspension it had placed on the WFI. The UWW had suspended WFI for failing to conduct elections with a deadline that they had set in August and India wrestlers competed as neutral athletes in global events over the last few months.
The elections were held for 15 posts, including the president, treasurer, secretary-general, and senior vice-president, in the capital city. The two-way race for the presidential post of the Wrestling Federation of India was between former Commonwealth Games Gold medallist Anita Sheoran and Sanjay Singh, the vice-president of Uttar Pradesh Wrestling Federation.
Anita Sheoran, who is from Haryana and contested from Odisha, was bidding to become the first female president of the national wrestling body. She had the backing of the star wrestlers, including Sakshi Malik, Bajrang Punia, and Vinesh Phogat, who protested against outgoing Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh over allegations of sexual harassment and stalking of female wrestlers.
On the other hand, Sanjay Singh, who has been a close aide of Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, has promised to bring back the glory days of wrestling, a sport that has produced multiple Olympic medallists for India in the recent past. The likes of Sakshi Malik and Bajrang Punia had reservations about Sanjay Singh contesting the elections as they voiced it out during their meeting with Sports Minister Anurag Thakur earlier in the month.
The much-talked-about protests began in earnest on January 18th when wrestlers gathered at Jantar Mantar, New Delhi, publicly voicing their accusations of sexual exploitation and intimidation by Singh. The outcry from the athletes was not just about seeking justice for themselves but also about creating a safer environment for upcoming wrestlers. They demanded free and fair elections to the WFI and insisted that neither Singh nor any of his family members should be involved with the federation. The protests continued until June after which the wrestlers decided to call it off after they were promised action by the Sports Ministry.
