Shortly after his close aide swept the elections to the Wrestling Federation of India, the body’s former chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, who was accused of sexual harassment by some of India’s top wrestlers, declared “dabdaba tha, dabdaba rahega (I prevailed, I will prevail)”, indicating that his dominance would continue.
Brij Bhushan’s aide Sanjay Singh got 40 out of the 47 votes in Thursday’s election, defeating Commonwealth Games Gold medallist Anita Sheoran. Ms Sheoran was backed by wrestlers, including Sakshee Malikkh, Bajrang Punia, and Vinesh Phogat, who had protested against Brij Bhushan, a BJP MP.
Reacting to the election result, Brij Bhushan said it was a victory of the country’s wrestlers and that he hoped wrestling activities which were “stopped for 11 months” – since the protests against him began – would now resume.
The BJP MP also called Sanjay Singh, who has said he is “definitely close” to the former wrestling federation chief, a non-partisan person.
“A message has been given. Every akhaada (wrestling academy) in the country is bursting firecrackers. Dabdabaa tha, dabdabaa rahega! I want to give the credit of victory to the wrestlers of the country and the electors. I want to thank the government as well. The elections were done on the instructions of the Supreme Court… the Centre went ahead to make sure elections happened and a non-partisan person was chosen as president,” Brij Bhushan said.
“This ‘grahan’ (eclipse) of 11 months on wrestling is over. Within 10 days, the landscape of wrestling will change again and we will perform in the Olympics the way people want us to,” he added.
