Is this the end of road for ex-WFI chief Brij Bhushan Singh?

In the eye of a storm after India’s top wrestlers accused him of sexually harassing female athletes, Brij Bhushan and his son are not part of the electoral college for the upcoming WFI elections Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, MP who until recently had been the chief of the Wrestling Federation of India for the past 12 years but had been in the eye of a storm after India’s top wrestlers, including Olympic medallists and world champions, accused him of sexually harassing female athletes and his son Karan are not part of the electoral college for the upcoming Wrestling Federation of India (WFI).  Is this the end of the road for the former WFI boss? It is worth mentioning that Sports minister Anurag Thakur had promised to the protesting wrestlers led by Vinesh Phogat and Bajrang Punia that none from Brij Bhushan’s family will contest the elections. Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh is an influential MP from the ruling party and recently, he has been at the centre of a sporting row. The allegations against him are serious and top wrestlers, including Olympic medallists and world champions, had accused him of sexually harassing female athletes and have held months of protests demanding his arrest. The wrestlers’ protests had made global headlines and after a number of medal-winners were dragged through the streets last month when they tried to march on parliament, even the International Olympic Committee weighed in, calling on India to ensure the safety of athletes and carry out a fair investigation. As per the revised schedule, on the last day for receiving nominations, the Uttar Pradesh unit filed fresh nominations withdrawing the names of Brij Bhushan and son Karan Bhushan, who had also served as WFI vice-president since 2019. In the electoral list, 25 states have nominated two representatives each for the electoral college. Elections will be held for the post of president, senior vice-president, four vice-presidents, a secretary general, a treasurer, two joint secretaries and five executive members.  The submission of nominations for elections is from July 28-31. The scrutiny of nominations will be done on August 2 while the final date of withdrawal of nominations is August 8. Elections for the general body will be held on August 12. Some WFI officials were taken by surprise by some of the names in the electoral college. A top wrestling official said they will raise a complaint with the returning officer as some of the names in the electoral college were not part of the respective associations, which is not compliant with the WFI constitution. For instance, “Prem Chand Lochab is not part of the Gujarat association. He is from the Railways. Same with Devender, who is from Haryana and is representing Assam. Also Anita, who is a former wrestler, will represent Odisha. We are surprised how these names which are not part of any state unit of WFI have been included,” the official said.