WFI Elections: Who is Sanjay Singh, the newly-elected Wrestling Federation of India president?

The drama surrounding the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) elections finally reached its conclusion on Thursday with Sanjay Singh being appointed the new president of the federation. Indian wrestling has been in a state of turmoil for months now following an agitation led by some of the country’s top grapplers against former president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh. Brij Bhushan, a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP from Uttar Pradesh’s Kaiserganj, had been accused of sexually harassing several female athletes. He had to later step down from the role at the height of the agitation from April to June, and was eventually chargesheeted by the Delhi police for the same. An ad-hoc committee appointed by the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) had managed the day-to-day affairs at the WFI after the dissolution of the Brij Bhushan-led board. The elections were originally scheduled to take place in August, only for the Punjab and Haryana High Court to put a stay order on the same that later led to the United World Wrestling suspending the WFI. Singh’s appointment as WFI chief on Thursday did result in the WFI having full-time elected officials once again and should result in the body getting reinstated by UWW. However, the election result has been met with protest from some of India’s leading wrestlers who were the faces of the protest earlier this year, with Rio Olympics bronze medallist Sakshi Malik going so far as to announce her retirement from the sport. So who is Sanjay Singh and why are Malik and other wrestlers opposing him? The reason why the WFI elections have led to fresh outrage from the wrestlers along with Malik’s shocking announcement is because of Singh’s close ties with former president Brij Bhushan. One of the conditions for the wrestlers calling off their protest in June following a round of talks with Union Sports Minister Anurag Thakur, who assured them that Brij Bhushan or any member of his family would be barred from contesting the polls.

While Brij Bhushan as well as his family members were barred from contesting the polls, Brij Bhushan loyalist Singh’s announcement as a candidate for the election caused uneasiness among Malik and other key members of the wrestlers’ protest, including fellow stars Bajrang Punia and Vinesh Phogat. Singh, a Varanasi native, is also the vice-president of the UP Wrestling Association and was also part of the previous WFI executive council, having served as the federation’s joint secretary since 2019. Given his proximity to Brij Bhushan as well as the latter’s tremendous interest in the sport, Singh will be expected to consult him for advice on running the WFI from time to time. In an interview with the BBC, Singh went to the extent of saying that him and Brij Bhushan have family ties and have been close for three decades now.