Four candidates, including outgoing Wrestling Federation of India chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh's close aide Sanjay Kumar Singh from UP, filed nominations for the post of president amid fanfare at the Olympic Bhawan here on Monday.
Darshan Lal from the Chandigarh wrestling body filed his nomination for the post of general secretary, while SP Deswal from Uttarakhand filed his nomination for the post of treasurer from the Brij Bhushan camp.
The Brij Bhushan camp claims to have the support of 22 of the 25 state units and, after filing nominations, expressed "confidence" of winning all 15 posts during the WFI elections on August 12.
On a day of hectic activity at the Olympic Bhawan, a convoy of nominees and supporters from the Brij Bhushan camp arrived with the "blessings" of the BJP leader, and after extensive paperwork, filed their nominations before former J&K High Court Chief Justice Mahesh Mittal Kumar, the Returning Office appointed for the elections.
The last date for withdrawing nominations is August 7.
The only lady candidate on the WFI executive committee members' list is Anita Sheoran, representing Odisha. Sheoran was one of the witnesses in the alleged sexual harassment case against Brij Bhushan.
The Brij Bhushan camp has filed a total of 18 nominations for 15 posts, while candidates from the rival camps left without disclosing which posts they were filing their nominations for.
The Brij Bhushan camp nominees and supporters were the first to arrive at the Olympic Bhawan past noon, after the BJP leader held another round of meeting at a five-star hotel before the convoy left to file nominations.
Even though Brij Bhushan, who had been holding meetings with state units for the last two days to come up with a list of "consensus candidates", did not accompany the candidates to the Olympic Bhawan, his son-in-law Vishal Singh (Bihar Wrestling Federation president), was facilitating his group's candidates in filing nomination papers. He is not in the fray for any post though.
"Eighteen nominations have been filed from our side. Our candidate for the post of president is Sanjay Kumar Singh. We have filed (nominations) for three vice presidents," said Vishal.
In the morning, Brij Bhushan reiterated that no member of his family will contest the WFI polls. While his son Karan had already pulled out, Vishal too had said on Sunday he would not be contesting for any post.
