Wrestling Federation of India Elections to be conducted on 12th August

The elections of the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) will be conducted on August 12, it was announced on Friday, but the state of Maharashtra will not be part of the poll process as Returning Officer Justice MM Kumar declared that both rival factions were ineligible for participation.

The ad-hoc committee announced 6th July as the date earlier but after disaffiliated state bodies from Maharashtra, Haryana, Telangana, Rajasthan, and Himachal Pradesh approached it for a hearing, claiming that their dismissal was not appropriate, they had to reschedule it to July 11.

The polls couldn't go ahead even on 11th July with the Gauhati High Court staying the elections after the Assam Wrestling Association (AWA) sought the right to participate in the poll process.

The Supreme Court intervened to start the election process after it put a stay on the Gauhati High Court order on Tuesday.

The electoral college will now have 48 members with voting rights from 24 state bodies and the nominations for posts will be filed on August 1.

The scrutiny of the nominations will be conducted on August 2 and a final list of the candidates will be published on August 7. If the election is required, voting will be conducted on August 12.

The sports ministry had ordered the WFI to suspend all its activities with immediate effect after appointing an oversight committee to investigate the allegations of sexual harassment of women wrestlers by national body president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, who has received bail in the case.

The IOA had appointed an ad-hoc panel to run the day-to-day activities of the federation.

Brij Bhushan, who has completed 12 years as president, is ineligible to contest elections as per Sports Code guidelines.

It will be interesting to see if his son Karan, who heads the UP Wrestling Association, contests the elections.