On Thursday evening, Olympic bronze medallist Sakshi Malik announced her retirement from wrestling in front of the media in New Delhi.
She emerged from the shadows of Geeta Phogat to qualify for the Rio 2016 Olympics and clinched the bronze medal on her Games’ debut. It was India’s first Olympic medal won by a female wrestler.
Today tearful Sakshi Malik announced that she is quitting wrestling to protest against the selection of Sanjay Singh, a close aide of ex-President and sexual assualt accused Brij Bhushan Charan Singh, as the new President of the Wrestling Federation of India.
Speaking to the media in Delhi, she said, “We have continued to fight sincerely. But Sanjay Singh, a business partner and close aide of someone like Brij Bhushan, has been elected as the president of the wrestling federation. So I’m retiring from wrestling. We demanded a woman as leader. But it didn’t happen,” she said tearfully.
Other wrestlers view:
Bajrang Punia said, “The government had said that no one related to Brij Bhushan will contest in the Indian Wrestling Federation elections. But it is unfortunate that there has been a retreat from it now,” he said. Vinesh Phogat said, “Newcomer wrestlers will also be affected.” Also both Bajrang Punia and Vikensh Phogat have not announced their retirement from wrestling.
Struggles behind this issue:
While the Indian Wrestling Federation elections were supposed to be held in 
June last year, the elections were postponed several times due to the wrestler-women struggle and lawsuits filed by various state wrestling associations. Following this, the Indian Wrestling Federation was suspended by the World Wrestling Federation for failing to conduct the elections for the executives on time. Against this background, the election for the Executives of Wrestling Federation of India was held on Dec. 21 (Thursday). Polling took place in Delhi this morning. After that, the counting of votes took place.
Jai Prakash (37) from Delhi, Asit Kumar Saga (42) from West Bengal, Kardar Singh (44) from Punjab and N Boney (38) from Manipur won. Mohan Yadav, the new Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh who contested for the post of Deputy President, lost by getting only 5 votes.
Uttar Pradesh’s Satyapal Singh Deshwaal from Brij Bhushan’s team has been elected as the new treasurer of the federation. He defeated his opponent Dushyant Sharma from Jammu and Kashmir. Similarly, Brij Bhushan’s team has also bagged the post of five executive committee members.
However, it cannot be said that it was a complete failure for Anita Sheoran’s team, which had the support of star players. Former secretary of the Railway Sports Development Board, Chand Lohsab, who belongs to the team, has been elected as the general secretary of the federation, defeating his opponent Darshan Lal by 27-19 votes.
Likewise, Devender Singh Khadian, who owns eateries on national highways and is considered a supporter of the protesting women players, stood against him. He won the post of Senior Vice President defeating Nanavati by 32-15 votes.
