Much of the focus in the August 12 Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) elections is on the race for the president’s post. That contest is between Sanjay Kumar Singh, a loyalist of the disgraced Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, and Anita Sheoran, the 2010 Commonwealth Games wrestling gold medallist.
But there is another name that will cause excitement as well. Kartar Singh, among five candidates in the fray for four vice-presidential posts, is a legend of Indian wrestling, who in his heyday packed arenas, won dozens of competitions at the national and Asian level, and competed in three Olympics (1980, 1984, 1988).
Kartar is the only Indian wrestler with two Asian Games gold medals in freestyle wrestling (1978 Bangkok and 1986 Seoul). As an administrator, he is very experienced, having been a former WFI secretary-general. He was also an Aam Aadmi Party candidate from Tarn Taran many years ago and is a winner of the Padma Shri and Arjuna Award.
The others in the fray for vice-presidential posts are Asit Kumar Saha (Bengal), Jai Prakash (Delhi), Mohan Yadav (Madhya Pradesh) and N Phoni (Manipur).
At the 1978 Bangkok Asian Games, Kartar triumphed over Mongolia's Chimidiin Gochoosüren to win the 90-kg gold, even as his countryman Rajinder Singh won the gold in the 74 kg category.
“I dominated the final bout against Chimidiin from the outset and opened up a 5-0 lead in the first round and subsequently won the next two rounds easily (in those there used to be three rounds of three minutes each)," Kartar once told thebridge.in.
Four years later, however, Kartar faced disappointment. At the 1982 Asian Games in Delhi, in front of a hopeful home crowd featuring Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, he was defeated by Iran's Mohammad Hassan Mohebbi.
"Mohebbi was a tough opponent even though the home crowd was rooting for me,” Kartar said. “I remember winning four points in the first minute of the first round but subsequently found the going tough and lost. It was so disappointing to let Prime Minister Gandhi and the home crowd down.”
Kartar made amends four years later when he took gold in Seoul.
Final list of WFI election candidates:
President: Anita Sheoran, Sanjay Kumar Singh.
Senior vice-president: Devender Kadian, ID Nanavati.
Vice-president: Asit Kumar Saha, Jai Prakash, Kartar Singh, Mohan Yadav, N. Phoni.
Secretary-general: Darshan Lal, Prem Chand Lochab.
Treasurer: Dushyant Sharma, Satya Pal Singh Deshwal.
Joint secretary: Bellippady Gunaranjan Shetty, Kuldip Singh, RK Purushotham, Rohtash Singh.
Executive members: Ajay Vaid, M. Loganathan, Neivikuolie Khatsii, Prashant Rai, Rajnish Kumar, Ratul Sarma, Ummed Singh.
