NEW DELHI: The Indian Olympic Association (IOA) has set in motion the exercise to hold elections to the new executive council (EC) of the embattled Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) by appointing retired Jammu and Kashmir High Court Chief Justice, Mahesh Mittal Kumar, as the returning officer (RO). IOA has suggested July 4 as the date to conclude the electoral process.
However, it will solely depend on the RO to hold the elections on July 4 or conduct it a few days later after issuing a 21-day notice to call the Special General Meeting (SGM) of the WFI. It's been learnt that the RO is expected to come up with the election notification in a couple of days.
What we surely know is that IOA will miss the government's deadline to hold elections by June 30, a date suggested by sports minister Anurag Thakur to the protesting wrestlers who had held a marathon meeting at his official residence here on June 7 before agreeing to suspend their agitation for a week.
It would also be interesting to see whether former WFI president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh's family members, relatives and close associates are allowed to contest the upcoming elections. The electoral college will be formed after Kumar takes charge of the proceedings and, as has been the case in any democratic set-up, Brij Bhushan's family members are eligible to contest.
His younger son Karan was a vice-president in the previous WFI regime, whose four-year term ended in March this year, but is presently associated with the Uttar Pradesh wrestling association. His son-in-law, Vishal Singh, is the president of the Bihar wrestling body. Both are eligible to contest as state body representatives, unless the central leadership of BJP issues a diktat restraining the two from filing their nominations.
"IOA has to take steps forward to conduct elections of the WFI executive committee and we are pleased to appoint you as a returning officer to conduct the elections of the WFI. You may consider appointing one assistant returning officer and other staff to assist in conducting the elections," IOA's joint secretary and acting CEO, Kalyan Chaubey, wrote in a letter addressed to Kumar. "Elections are required to be conducted in the SGM of the WFI called on 4th July and the schedule of the election will be required to be drawn accordingly. We look forward to your confirmation of acceptance and also smooth conduct of elections of the WFI on July 4," he added.
The WFI had earlier proposed to hold elections to its new EC on May 7, which was later declared 'null and void' by the ministry. The WFI has 25 affiliated units, including UTs of Chandigarh and Delhi. Each state unit can send two representatives and each representative shall have one vote. The electoral college will thus consist of 50 voters.
