The United World Wrestling (UWW) on Thursday suspended the membership of the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) after the federation failed to organize the necessary elections. It clearly states that now the wrestlers will take part but without under the Indian flag. They will have to play under a neutral flag, like the Olympic Association.
The WFI was involved in a string of controversies that resulted in postponing the election process. Earlier, the federation was supposed to organise an election in June 2023 but then it was repeatedly delayed after a number of protests by Indian wrestlers and legal petitions from various state units.
"The UWW communicated to the ad-hoc panel on Wednesday night that WFI has been suspended for not holding elections to its executive committee," an IOA source told PTI.
The elections for 15 spots of the WFI's governing body were slated to take place on August 12. Four candidates, including Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh's close companion Uttar Pradesh's Sanjay Singh, filed nominations for the post of president at the Olympic Bhawan in New Delhi on Monday. Darshan Lal from Chandigarh was nominated for the position of general secretary and SP Deswal of Uttarakhand on the other hand was nominated for treasurer from the Brij Bhushan camp.
Earlier, WFI was handed over with a suspension in January and then again in May after India's wrestlers protested against the then president Brij Bhushan of sexual harassment. After all the chaos, the regular activities are now being managed by the Indian Olympic Association-constituted ad-hoc committee under the supervision of Bhupender Singh Bajwa.
Earlier, the United World Wrestling already gave a warning to WFI that if the elections were delayed, they would get suspended.