Picture Credit: Twitter
Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, who has been accused of harassing seven female wrestlers, wouldn’t be a part of the electoral college in the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) elections. Not only this, but his son Karan Pratap won’t also be a part of the college, and the list consists of names that are not associated with the existing state bodies.
The report by Times of India states that the list includes the name of Brij Bhushan's son-in-law and Bihar wrestling federation’s head Vishal Pratap Singh. The elections of the WFI are set to be hosted on August 12, and the names of Singh and Karan Pratap have been replaced by Prem Kumar Mishra and Sanjay Singh as the Uttar Pradesh wrestling association’s representative.
Notably, Sports Minister Anurag Thakur promised the protesting wrestlers including Sakshi Malik, Bajrang Punia and Sakshi Phogat that no one from Brij Bhushan’s family will be allowed to contest the WFI elections. As per the WFI Constitution, only members who are a part of the state executive can be a part of the electoral college.
Apart from other representatives of several states, Assam has also been granted voting rights following the ad-hoc’s decision to grant membership to a state. A WFI source was quoted by TOI saying, "How can an ad-hoc panel grant membership to a state. It's a decision taken by the General Council. It’s difficult to understand how this decision has been taken. This is a clear violation of WFI Constitution that people who are not a part of the state bodies have been nominated and approved in the electoral college list.”
