UWW, the world governing body for wrestling, has suspended the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) for not conducting its elections on time, a decision that will not allow the country’s grapplers to compete at the upcoming World Championships under the Tricolour.

The Indian wrestlers will have to compete as ‘neutral athletes’ at the Olympic-qualifying event, starting September 16 in Serbia, as the ad-hoc panel, led by Bhupender Singh Bajwa, did not honour the 45-day deadline for conducting the elections.

Hence, performances at the Championships will not be counted as India’s.

The development has come a day before the World Championships trials in Patiala.

The WFI polls have been long overdue, after the term of its former president Brijbhushan Sharan Singh, who has been accused of sexual harassment, ended earlier this
year.

Originally, the WFI was to hold elections on May 7 but the sports ministry had declared the process null and void. Subsequently, the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) installed an ad-hoc panel on April 27 to run the sport in the country. On April 28, UWW warned that it could suspend WFI if the deadline was not honoured.

The polls were postponed twice owing to court orders. The most recent being on August 11, a day before the elections were to be held, when the Punjab and Haryana High Court issued a stay order following a plea by two WFI-affiliated units.

Among the candidates in the fray are Brijbhushan’s confidante Sanjay Singh and former Commonwealth Games gold medallist Anita Sheoran.

“The UWW communicated to the ad-hoc panel on Wednesday night that WFI has been suspended for not holding elections to its executive committee,” an IOA source told PTI.

Ad-hoc panel member Gian Singh told PTI they are being kept in the dark by Bajwa on developments and that they are not part of decision-making anymore.

“I have also heard that WFI has been suspended but I can’t tell you what the ad-hoc panel will do now.

“Mr Bajwa does not call us for discussion anymore. I did not even know how the criteria were finalised for the Worlds trials,” Gian said.

Bajwa was contacted for a comment but he did not return calls or respond to text messages from PTI.

The wrestlers, though, can compete under the Indian flag at the Asian Games since it’s the IOA that has sent entries and not the WFI.