Former BJP MP and ex-chief of Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh has said that when women grapplers levelled allegations of sexual harassment against him last year, he had termed it a "conspiracy of the Congress".

"Senior Congress leaders from Haryana - Deepender Singh Hooda and Bhupinder Singh Hooda - are hatching conspiracy against me. Whatever I had said on day one, I still stand by it. And today, the same thing is being said by the entire country," Singh said at a smartphone distribution function in a private school here Thursday.

He made the remarks in the wake of wrestlers Vinesh Phogat and Bajrang Punia meeting former Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday.

The two joined the Congress on Friday ahead of the Haryana assembly polls.

After joining the party, Phogat said the BJP was supporting Singh while the Congress supported the protesting wrestlers when they "were being dragged on the roads" in Delhi.

Punia and Phogat were part of the protest over sexual harassment allegations against Singh in 2023.

At the event, Singh also said, "Now I do not need to say much about this. I will not speak much on this episode, otherwise this thing will reach Haryana immediately. At this time the whole country is waiting for Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh to say something on this issue," the former BJP MP said.

"When the women wrestlers had levelled allegations against me, I had then said that this is a conspiracy of the Congress," he said.

"There was a conspiracy against me in 1996 as well. At that time, my wife Ketki Singh had become an MP. I was in Tihar Jail those days as part of a conspiracy. After this, there was a conspiracy against me in 2023 as well. Then my younger son Karan Bhushan Singh became an MP in my place," he said.

In 1996, Singh was arrested under the TADA law in a criminal case in Mumbai and was then lodged in Tihar Jail. In his place, the BJP fielded his wife from Gonda in the Lok Sabha elections and she was elected.

After the allegations made by the women wrestlers, the BJP did not give Singh a ticket from Kaiserganj and made his son Karan Bhushan Singh the candidate.

Karan Bhushan Singh won the Lok Sabha polls by a margin of over 1.48 lakh votes defeating SP's Bhagat Ram.

"Before this incident, no one took a selfie with me. Now after this incident, heroes and heroines also take selfies, even saints and sages are taking selfies," Singh said in his speech.

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