Sanjay Singh, close aide of Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, elected as President of Wrestling Federation of India | Sport-others News

Sanjay Singh has been elected as the President of Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) after the delayed polls to elect the office-bearers for the federation were held on Thursday. Sanjay defeated Commonwealth Games gold medal-winning wrestler Anita Sheoran 40 votes to 7, it was learnt.
Sanjay will take over the reins of the WFI chief from controversial Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, who had to step aside after some of India’s top wrestlers like Tokyo Olympics bronze medall Bajrang Punia, Rio Olympic bronze medall Sakshi Malik and world championship medall Vinesh Phogat had led a protest against him. The protesting wrestlers had levelled serious allegations against the multiple-time Member of Parliament Brij Bhushan including sexual assault. The BJP MP from Kaiserganj was found liable for prosecution for sexual harassment, molestation and stalking of women wrestlers in the chargesheet of Delhi Police.
Meanwhile, Prem Chand Lochab, who was from the opposing faction seemingly supported the protesting wrestlers, has been elected as the secretary-general.
Sanjaym who hails from Varanasi, is a close associate of Brij Bhushan. He had told The Indian Express on Wednesday that he was confident of bagging 42 of the 50 votes in the elections. Sheoran, meanwhile, was backed the protesting wrestlers, who had demanded Brij Bhushan’s arrest. The 2010 Commonwealth Games gold medal is a witness and a corroborator in the case against Brij Bhushan.
“I am confident of becoming the president of the WFI because I have the support of at least 42 of the 50 members of the electoral college. My panel will sweep the elections. Those who have the best interest of the sport at heart will vote for me. What happened over the past year (wrestlers’ protest) has hurt the sport. I will ensure that no further damage is done,” Sanjay Kumar had told The Indian Express.
A report in The Indian Express earlier this week had said that Bajrang and Sakshi had called on Union Sports Miner Anurag Thakur to ask him to convince Sanjay to withdraw from the WFI chief’s race.
“Nobody should interfere with elections of a federation if it is happening in a democratic manner. Till now, nobody has asked me to withdraw my name. I have been associated with the Wrestling Federation of India for nearly 12 years. I want to work hard to ensure that the WFI returns to the heights, which our parliamentarian-president (Brij Bhushan) had taken it to,” Sanjay had told Express when asked about the wrestlers’ demands

With the elections for the office bearers in the Wrestling Federation of India having concluded this paves the way for United World Wrestling, which is the global governing body for wrestling, to lift the suspension it had slapped on WFI. UWW had suspended the Indian wrestling body for failing to conduct elections within the deadline that they had set in August.
Consequently, Indian wrestlers had competed as neutral athletes in global events over the last few months.