Who will succeed Brij Bhushan? Wrestling Federation of India elections to decide next month

The Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) elections are now set to be held in August amid the premium body is embroiled in a controversy as its incumbent chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh facing accusations of sexual harassment. The much-delayed elections are likely to be held on 12 August.

Former Jammu and Kashmir High Court Chief Justice Mahesh Mittal Kumar was appointed as the returning officer for the WFI elections by the Indian Olympic Association (IOA). However, Maharashtra will not be part of the poll process as Kumar declared that both rival factions were ineligible for participation.

The ad-hoc panel had scheduled the elections for July 6 but it was forced to reschedule the polls to July 11 after disaffiliated state bodies from Maharashtra, Haryana, Telangana, Rajasthan, and Himachal Pradesh approached it for a hearing, claiming that their dismissal was not appropriate.

The panel heard the aggrieved representatives of the state bodies but the polls could not go ahead even on July 11 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 then paved the way for elections on Tuesday after staying the Gauhati High Court order.

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 election will decide the members of the executive committee of WFI. The occupants of the post of president, one post of senior vice-president, four posts of vice president, one each position of secretary general and treasurer, two posts of joint secretary, and five posts of an executive member will be decided, as per a letter from IOA.

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.

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.