Brij Bhushan out of WFI poll fray but son-in-law in | India News – Times of India

NEW DELHI: Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh’s grip over Indian wrestling may finally be history, if the final list of electoral college is anything to go by. TOI is in possession of the voters’ list prepared by the returning officer, Justice (retd) Mahesh Mittal Kumar. Neither Brij Bhushan nor his younger son Karan – who heads the Uttar Pradesh wrestling association – find a mention in the list. Both were to represent the state body in the upcoming elections, but now Prem Kumar Mishra and Sanjay Singh will vote. Sources informed that former Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) chief Brij Bhushan and his son have withdrawn their names ahead of the August 12 elections.

However, Brij Bhushan’s son-in-law and Bihar wrestling’s president, Vishal Pratap Singh, has found mention in the list as one of the two voters from the state alongside Vinay Kumar Singh. Karan and Vishal were seen as natural successors to Brij Bhushan’s throne. But Brij Bhushan and his son’s withdrawal from the fray is largely being viewed as an end of the BJP politician’s era in Indian wrestling.
The electoral college has thrown up some interesting names of persons eligible to contest the upcoming WFI elections for the posts of office-bearers and members of executive committee (EC) for a period of three years (2023-2026). The most prominent being Prem Chand Lochab, who is secretary Railways Sports Promotion Board (RSPB). Lochab, who has a good standing amidst the Jat community in Haryana and Rajasthan, has entered the fray from Gujarat, alongside the seasoned I D Nanavati – a Brij Bhushan loyalist and the president of the state wrestling body.

Lochab originally hails from Rajasthan and isn’t part of the Gujarat wrestling’s executive body. The WFI’s constitution says that only those who are of the state body’s executive committee are allowed to take part in the electoral process. How Lochab became an eligible voter from Gujarat remained an unanswered question. Multiple calls to Lochab went unanswered.
It’s interesting to mention here that three prominent faces of wrestling protest against Brij Bhushan – Bajrang Punia, Vinesh Phogat and Sakshee Malikkh – are Railways employees at its northern headquarters and report directly to Lochab.
Lochab’s name is not the only one that has surprised people in the wrestling circles. Haryana’s Jannayak Janata Party’s (JJP) Devender Kadian – a close aide of state’s deputy chief minister Dushyant Chautala – will be voting during from Assam, where he neither has any footprint nor is he part of the state wrestling’s executive body.