Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader Naresh Tikait will be holding a 'Mahapanchayat' (Khap meeting) will be held in Muzaffarnagar's Soram village today to discuss the ongoing protest by wrestlers against WFI chief Brij Bhushan Singh over sexual harassment charges, reported news agency PTI. Tikait, who is also the head of Balyan Khap, said on Tuesday that the protest-related matters will be discussed in detail in the Mahapanchayat tomorrow. Tikait said multiple representatives of different Khaps and their heads from Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab Rajasthan and Delhi will be participating in the Mahapanchayat, as reported by PTI. He said the main objective of the meeting is to decide the next course of action in the ongoing wrestlers' protest.
This comes a day after a high drama on Tuesday when the wrestlers gathered on the banks of the Ganga river in Haridwar, threatening to immerse their World and Olympic medals in the holy river, but refrained after being convinced by Khap and farmer leaders who sought five days to address their grievances.
Olympic medallists Sakshi Malik, Bajrang Punia and Asian Games gold medallist Vinesh Phogat went to Har ki Pauri on Tuesday to protest the inaction against the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) chief who has allegedly sexually harassed several women grapplers.
However, after spending an hour and 45 minutes, the protestors returned as multiple Khap and political leaders urged them not to take such an extreme step.
Earlier, on May 28, On the day of the inauguration of the new parliament building, the Delhi Police had detained the wrestlers and filed FIRs against them for violation of law and order.
The wrestlers were removed from their protest site in Delhi’s Jantar Mantar on May 28, when they were planning to march to the new parliament building.
They had been protesting there for 35 days against BJP MP Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh. The Delhi police detained these protesters at different sites and removed the trampolins, mats, and other belongings of the protesters.