Scandal-hit India wrestling chief replaced by ally

NEW DELHI (AFP): A close aide of India’s scandal-hit former wrestling federation chief was on Thursday elected as the new president, beating a Commonwealth Games gold medal-winning woman candidate.

Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, also a lawmaker from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling party, was charged this year with sexually harassing and stalking women wrestlers under his charge.

Many of India’s top wrestlers had led a noisy sit-in protest campaign demanding his ouster after the allegations came to light in January.

Singh and his family were prohibited from contesting the election, held months behind schedule, to determine his successor as Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) president.

The vote was won by his ally Sanjay Singh, a mainstay of the WFI who had held senior federation positions under the former president.

“It’s a very big victory of truth over lies,” Sanjay told reporters after winning 40 out of the 47 votes cast by the federation’s member institutions.

He promised to ensure there is “no injustice against any woman wrestler” under his leadership.

The new president defeated Anita Sheoran, who won a gold medal at the 2010 Commonwealth Games and supported the campaign by athletes against his predecessor.

Wrestling is hugely popular in rural northern India, and star athletes saw a wellspring of public support when they were detained in May while attempting to march on parliament to demand the arrest of the WFI’s then-chief.

“The future of wrestling is now dark,” world champion wrestler Vinesh Phogat, one of the leaders of the protest campaign against the former president, said after the election.

“I am disappointed that we failed in our fight to clean the system,” she added.

The accused 66-year-old Singh has denied all charges and claimed he is the victim of a conspiracy to force him out of parliament.

A criminal case against him is ongoing and could see him sentenced to five years in prison if found guilty.

Sheoran, the losing candidate in Thursday’s election, is a witness in the case.

The ballot opens the way to ending the federation’s suspension by United World Wrestling, the international governing body.

The WFI was suspended in August over its failure to hold the long-delayed elections to replace Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh in time.