Wrestling Federation of India elections scheduled for August 12 stayed by Punjab and Haryana High Court

The already-delayed Wrestling Federation of India elections will not be held as scheduled on August 12. The Punjab and Haryana High Court, on Friday, stayed the elections.

The WFI has been embroiled in a series of controversies that have led to a significant delay in its elections. The federation, which is the governing body for wrestling in India, was initially scheduled to hold elections in June 2023. However, due to a series of protests by Indian wrestlers and legal petitions from various state units, the elections have been postponed multiple times.

Elections for 15 posts in the WFI governing body were set to be held on August 12. 4 candidates, including outgoing Wrestling Federation of India chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh’s close aide Sanjay Singh from UP, filed nominations for the post of president amid fanfare at the Olympic Bhawan here on Monday.

Darshan Lal from the Chandigarh wrestling body filed his nomination for the post of general secretary, while SP Deswal from Uttarakhand filed his nomination for the post of treasurer from the Brij Bhushan camp.

The WFI was suspended first in January and then again in May after India’s top wrestlers protested against its functioning and alleged its then president Brij Bhushan sexually harassed female wrestlers. The day-to-day affairs of the WFI are currently being managed by the Indian Olympic Association-constituted ad-hoc committee led by Bhupender Singh Bajwa.

Notably, the United World Wrestling, the governing body of the sport at the highest level, warned WFI of suspension if the elections were delayed.

Maharashtra and Tripura will not have any representatives at the elections as the Returning Officer deemed claims of both factions from the former “ineligible” while Tripura has remained disaffiliated since 2016.

The IOA ad-hoc panel had initially 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 IOA 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.