Brij Bhushan Singh holds meet to nominate panel for WFI elections

By Vipul Kashyap
New Delhi [India], July 30 : Outgoing Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh on Sunday held a meeting to nominate his panel which will contest the upcoming election of the federation to choose the new office-bearers. 
During the meeting, he met 22 out of the 25 state wrestling units. All of the units present in the meeting gave support to the panel of Brij Bhushan Singh, as per sources. 
The key idea among the units is that for important posts, there could be two candidates out of whom one will withdraw his name later. Brij Bhushan will, however, not take part in elections. 
Tomorrow, all the candidates will file their nominations at the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) Bhawan, which is also the only day for filing nominations.
The meeting was meant to decide the role of his panel members in the upcoming WFI elections. The elections are scheduled to take place on August 12. 
Initially, the WFI elections which were set to take place from July 6 to July 11 were postponed, as per the Indian Olympic Association (IOA). 
Former Jammu and Kashmir High Court Chief Justice Mahesh Mittal Kumar was appointed as the returning officer for the Wrestling Federation of India elections by the Indian Olympic Association (IOA). 
IOA Joint Secretary and Acting CEO Kalyan Chaubey confirmed the appointment of Justice MM Kumar through an official letter, also authorising him (Kumar) to appoint an Assistant Returning Officer (ARO) and other staff to assist him in conducting the elections. 
In the election, the members of the executive committee of WFI will be decided. 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 IOA organised a three-member ad-hoc committee in April as mandated by the Union Sports Ministry and two members were named to oversee WFI's day-to-day activities and pick wrestlers for international events in the interim term. 
Union Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports in April this year announced that the IOA will be forming an ad-hoc committee to conduct the elections for the Executive Committee of the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) within 45 days of its formation, to manage day-to-day affairs of the body, including the selection of athletes and making entries for the participation of players in international events. 
Since the start of this year, top wrestlers like Bajrang Punia, Vinesh Phogat and Sakshi Malik had been protesting to press their demand for action against Brij Bhushan over sexual harassment allegations faced by him.