The three-member ad-hoc committee, tasked to hold Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) elections, will likely work with just one member — Bhupinder Singh Bajwa — for at least one more week as one of the representatives, Suma Shirur, is away with the national shooting team in Baku, while a retired high court judge is yet to be appointed.
Suma could not attend the first meeting of the ad-hoc panel on Monday as she is the national coach for rifle shooting and is currently in the Azerbaijan capital with a 34-member Indian contingent for the ISSF World Cup.
A senior National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) official confirmed that Suma was away in Baku with the contingent.
The World Cup will conclude on May 15 and only then will she be available in person to attend the meetings.
With Shirur away, Bajwa will likely have to chair a few crucial meetings all by himself till the ace former rifle shooter returns.
The sports ministry had on April 24 stalled the scheduled May 7 elections of WFI and asked the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) to constitute an ad-hoc committee to conduct the polls within 45 days of its formation and also manage the sports body.
The IOA instituted the ad-hoc panel on April 27, including Wushu Association of India chief Bajwa, Shirur and a yet-to-be-named retired high court judge.
The ministry’s decision came after the country’s top wrestlers resumed their sit-in protest, demanding the arrest of WFI president Brijbhushan Sharan Singh for alleged sexual harassment of women wrestlers.
Bajwa deliberated on holding the trials, short-listing athletes for Asian Championships (U-17 & U-23) and drawing the roadmap for the Asian Games with wrestling coaches in the first meeting of the panel on Monday held at IOA Bhawan here. On Tuesday, Bajwa issued a statement that the 2023 U-20 and U-15 National Championships to be held at Pune had been rescheduled and the dates will be “intimated later on”.
