The much-delayed elections of the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) will be conducted on August 12, it was announced on Friday.
However, the state of Maharashtra will not be a part of the poll process as returning officer Justice MM Kumar has declared that both rival factions were ineligible for participation.
The IOA-appointed ad-hoc panel had scheduled the elections for July 6 but it was forced to reschedule the polls to July 11 after disaffiliated state bodies from Maharashtra, Haryana, Telangana, Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh approached it for a hearing, claiming that their dismissal was not appropriate.
The panel heard the aggrieved representatives of the state bodies but the polls could not go ahead even on July 11 with the Gauhati High Court staying the elections after the Assam Wrestling Association sought the right to participate in the poll process.
The Supreme Court then paved the way for elections after staying the Gauhati High Court order.
Closed-door trials
The ad-hoc committee has decided to conduct the Asian Games wrestling trials behind closed doors after parents of some of the wrestlers got into a heated argument with panel members at the IG Stadium on Friday.
Angry wrestlers threatened to boycott the trials in protest against the exemption given to Bajrang Punia (65 kg) and Vinesh Phogat (53 kg).
The ad-hoc panel, to avoid trouble, thus decided that it will be a restricted entry for the trials.
