CHENNAI: The wrestling saga in the country witnessed a fresh twist on Wednesday. On a day when Congress leader Rahul Gandhi went to grapple with protesting wrestler Bajrang Punia, the Indian Olympic Association formed an ad hoc committee to run the day-to-day affairs of the Wrestling Federation of India.
The three-member panel will be headed by Bhupinder Singh Bajwa, former Wushu Association of India president. Hockey Olympian M M Somaya and former international badminton player Manjusha Kanwar are the other members.
Newly-elected WFI president Sanjay Singh cried foul and said the formation of the ad-hoc panel is unconstitutional. “I am an elected member and not a nominated one and the sports ministry cannot suspend it because it is an autonomous body,” he told this daily.
Though the sports ministry had ‘suspended’ the WFI three days after the elections, the IOA formally suspended the wrestling body on Wednesday and put the reins in the hands of the ad-hoc committee.
The IOA said due to the lack of good governance they were forced to appoint the ad-hoc body. All eyes will be on the United World Wrestling which has suspended the WFI for not conducting elections in August. The UWW has not said anything about the elections. In the morning, Rahul reached Virender Akhara in Chhara village, Haryana, to interact with Bajrang, who returned his Padma Shri to the prime minister last week.
