CHENNAI: PT Usha, the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) president, said on Tuesday that the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) elections will take place very soon. The IOA is keeping a close watch on wrestling and is going to announce a returning officer to conduct the elections as early as possible.
The United World Wrestling, the world governing body, had earlier warned India that if the 45-day deadline, which ends on June 17, is not kept then India may face suspension. The sports ministry had asked the IOA to form an ad hoc committee to run the day-to-day affairs of the WFI and also to name a retired High Court judge as a returning officer to conduct elections within 45 days. The ad hoc committee comprising Bhupender Singh Bajwa and national shooting coach Suma Shirur was formed on April 27 and took charge of WFI on May 4. However, the returning officer has not been named as of now.
Usha on Tuesday insisted that the IOA is very much focused on conducting the elections but since there was a slew of competitions lined up they were more concerned about the selection of athletes. “The wrestlers should not suffer and we called for selection trials,” Usha told this newspaper. “WFI elections must take place. Even we are concerned about it. But our priority was to conduct the trials first.”
The IOA too had formed a six-member committee to probe the top wrestlers’ allegations against sidelined WFI chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh in January. There were indications that the IOA would want some kind of normalcy to prevail before conducting the elections.
The IOA president also said that the ad hoc committee has been successfully conducting the selection trials. “The kids are our priority and we needed to send teams to the U-15 and U-20 Asian wrestling championships,” she said. “We conducted open trials where more than 2500 wrestlers participated. I personally wanted to see the trials and went to Sonepat. I must say it is being conducted successfully.” Earlier, the ad hoc committee had conducted trials to select U-17 and 23 teams for the Asian Championships.
Usha said that the IOA is in the process of announcing a returning officer who will take care of the election process. “We have a few names and it will be finalised soon,” she said. Bajwa, an ad hoc committee member, had earlier told this daily that the panel is responsible for conducting selection trials and the elections will be conducted by the IOA.
Even as Usha looks optimistic about holding WFI polls soon, the IOA seems to be running out of time with only a few days remaining before the deadline ends. All eyes will now be on UWW and how it reacts once the deadline is over.
