The Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) who was supposed to conduct its elections on July 11 will no longer be able to hold it on the same day as Gauhati High Court has issued a stay on a petition filed by the Assam Wrestling Association (AWA).
The petition of AWA is against the WFI and IOA ad-hoc panel and the Union Sports Ministry for not including them as an affiliated member although they are entitled to be one as per their claims.
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The state association claimed that when the Executive Committee of the WFI made a recommendation for its affiliation at the Federations' General Council in Gonda, on November 15, 2014, it was denied recognition.
The stay on conducting the elections have brought until the next date of hearing that July 17.
Speaking to NDTV, an official from the previous set-up of the WFI said,
Really? So were they sleeping when WFI held elections in 2015 and 2019? Why have they approached the Court now? Can't you guys smell that something is fishy here? Someone is trying to influence the WFI elections. It's clear.
Actually, Assam was only an associate member without voting rights. If it had a problem with that, why they did not make an effort to reach out to the court in 2015 itself?
The WFI elections were initially supposed to be held on May 7, however, the Sports Ministry overruled that decision and appointed a temporary committee to overlook the institutions' day-to-day functioning.
The Ministry had then decided to hold the elections for the WFI on July 4 which was once again rescheduled to July 11 after at least 10 state units raised issues before the panel on June 21, which was also the last day to send entries for the electoral college.
READ: WFI elections rescheduled to July 11
