Punjab Wrestling Association tells ad-hoc panel not to exempt Bajrang Punia from Asian Games trials
New Delhi (PTI): Pressure continued to mount on IOA's ad-hoc panel for holding fair Asian Games trials with Punjab Wrestling Association (PWA) on Friday categorically telling the committee that it would field Jaskaran Singh in the 65kg competition and no wrestler should be picked in that weight class without a contest.
PWA Secretary General R S Kundu wrote a letter to panel head Bhupender Singh Bajwa, conveying that the committee must not hand exemption to any wrestler (read Bajang Punia) in the trials.
"It is injustice to Mr Jaskaran Singh if selection trial will not be conducted when it is a right of every eligible wrestler in each weight category to participate in selection trials for Asian Games 2023," the letter read.
"Punjab Wrestling Association strongly recommend the name of Mr Jaskaran Singh (for) freestyle wrestling and request the ad-hoc committee to conduct selection trials for Asian Games in 65kg weight category."
Bajrang Punia has made the 65kg weight class his own on the back of stupendous show in international tournaments. He won a bronze at the Tokyo Olympics and is a multiple medal winner at the World Championships.
Jaskaran had finished fourth at the U23 Asian Championship last month and is a silver medallist from the 2021 Cadet World Championship.
On Friday, 24 women wrestlers from Chhotu Ram Akhada had also requested the panel to give a fair chance to all wrestlers for a shot at the Asian Games-bound Indian squad.
The wrestlers had marked their mails to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, Sports Minister Anurag Thakur, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar and IOA President PT Usha.
The ad-hoc panel is still undecided on the criteria and format for the trials that are scheduled to be held on July 22-23 at Indira Gandhi Stadium in New Delhi.
According to panel member Gian Singh, a meeting will be held on Saturday to decide on the final criteria and so far they have deliberated upon three options.
As per discussion among committee members, the panel can send the names of the six protesting wrestlers -- Bajrang, Vinesh Phogat, Sakshi Malik, Jitender Kinha, Satyawart Kadian and Sangeeta Phogat -- as reserves.
However, it will be extremely difficult to replace the names unless there is an injury to a selected wrestler.
The second option, the panel has discussed is that after holding initial trials, it will pick country's best four wrestlers in each category and ask them to fight against the six protesting wrestlers and the final winner goes to Hangzhou where the Games will begin on September 13.
The third option is to just go ahead with the trails on July 22-23 and whoever competes and wins, will book his place in the Indian team.
"Honestly speaking, Sangeeta and Jitender Kinha don't stand much chance in the trials while Sakshi and Satyawart have 50-50 chance, so the issue is basically about two wrestlers, Vinesh and Bajrang," said a panel member.
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BJP wants to end reservation, change Constitution: Kejriwal
Lucknow (PTI): AAP leader and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday said the BJP wants to get more than 400 seats in the Lok Sabha polls as it wants to end reservation.
Kejriwal also reiterated his claim that Home Minister Amit Shah will be made the next prime minister and Yogi Adiyanath will be removed as Uttar Pradesh chief minister if the BJP returns to power.
"The people of BJP have always been against reservation. They will change the Constitution and end reservation of SC/ST/OBC after coming to power," he said at a joint press conference along with Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav here.
Kejriwal claimed Prime Minister Narendra Modi had made a rule that anyone over 75 years of age will not be given any post in the government and the organisation and will be retired.
L K Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi were retired as per this rule and several BJP leaders, as per this rule, were removed or not given ticket.
"PM Modi is going to cross the age of 75 next year and has decided to make Amit Shah the prime minister of the country," Kejriwal said.
He claimed that Modi has been working to ensure the same.
The leaders who could have caused an hindrance were sidelined. Shivraj Singh Chauhan, Vasundhra Raje, Raman Singh, Devendra Fadnvis and Manohar Lal Khattar have been finished, he asserted.
Kejriwal said Adityanath will be removed as Uttar Pradesh chief minister if the BJP again comes to power.
"There is only one person who could prove to be a thorn in the way of Amit Shah and that is Adityanath. They have now decided to remove Yogi Adityanath within two months if their government is formed," Kejriwal said.
"They say the BJP is going to do something big after coming to power. The big thing they want to do is to end reservation. We know their ecosystem -- RSS, BJP -- has been against reservation. I want to alert that they want more than 400 seats because they want to destroy the reservation made by B R Ambedkar," he claimed.
Kejriwal said trends coming from across the country show that the BJP is getting less than 220 seats. The seats of BJP in Haryana, Delhi, Karanataka, UP, Maharastra, West Bengal, Bihar and Jahrkhand are reducing and the party is not winning a single seat in Punjab, he claimed.
The SP chief claimed that BJP will win only 143 of the total 543 Lok Sabha seats.
"The BJP has been defeated in the first four phases. It was giving the slogan of wining 400 seats but is winning only 143 of the total 543 seats," the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister said.
