Sanjay Singh succeeds Brij Bhushan Singh as new WFI president, paves way to lift ban on organisation

The saga surrounding the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) elections has finally come to an end as Sanjay Singh officially succeeds outgoing President Brij Bhushan Singh Sharan. The news came on Thursday (Dec 21) afternoon after the elections were held in the national capital New Delhi. With the vote counting taking place immediately in the aftermath of the elections, Sanjay Singh gained the majority votes to succeed his close friend and Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) Member of Parliament Brij Bhushan.

Sanjay Singh succeeds Brij Bhushan

With the election dates continuously getting postponed for several reasons, the WFI elections were finally held on Thursday with Sanjay Singh and Anita Sheoran battling for the top post. Elections were also held for 14 other posts.

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While Anita was bidding to become the first female to become the president of the much talked WFI, Sanjay had the backing of former president Brij Bhushan Singh. Sanjay is also the incumbent president of the Uttar Pradesh Wrestling Federation.

However, in a tightly contested battle, Sanjay was elected as the President of the WFI. With a new president, the ban imposed by the United World Wrestling (UWW) may now be lifted with much relief to Indian sports. Wrestlers were earlier banned from competing under Indianflag in wrestling due to the ban imposed by the UWW on WFI.

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Year of chaos for WFI

The protests had begun in January 2023 with top wrestlers Bajrang Punia, Sakshi Malik, Vinesh Phogat and others atthe epicenter. The cluster of top wrestlers wanted then-President Brij Bhushan to be thrown out of power for sexual harassment charges against him. The protests were first held at the iconic Jantar Mantar in New Delhi, but the attention later switched to the holy city of Haridwar (210 km North of New Delhi) where the wrestlers threatenedto throw away their medals in the Ganges in a mark of protest against Brij Bhushan.

Protests were also held during the inauguration of the new parliament building in New Delhi on May 28.

India’s Sports Minister and the Olympic Association of India then formed separate committees to investigate the matter independently. The elections were then scheduled to be held in June, but interference from several state wrestling federations and court orders delayed the elections until December.