'I quit wrestling': Sakshi Malik after Brij Bhushan's loyalist becomes WFI chief

Shortly after former Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh's loyalist succeeded him in the top post in elections held on Thursday, Rio Olympics bronze medallist Sakshi Malik declared that she is quitting the sport.

Sanjay Singh, a loyalist of Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, was elected as the WFI president on Thursday, with his panel comfortably winning 13 of the 15 posts in the much-delayed polls -- an outcome that triggered an outrage among the protesting wrestlers and prompted Malik to announce her retirement from the sport.

Bajrang Punia, Vinesh Phogat and Malik had launched an agitation against Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, demanding his arrest over allegations of sexual harassment against several wrestlers, including a minor. Since then, they had been aggressively pushing for a change of guard in the WFI but a close associate of the BJP MP is now at the helm.

"We slept for 40 days on the roads and a lot of people from several parts of the country came to support us. If Brij Bhushan Singh's business partner and a close aide is elected as the president of WFI, I quit wrestling," she said while speaking to the press in the capital.

The 31-year-old also stated that the promises made to the wrestlers by the government were not fulfilled and further pointed they had demanded for a female president, however, that did not happen.

"We demanded for a woman president. If the president would be a woman, harassment would not happen. But there was no participation of women earlier and even today you can see the list, not even a single woman was given a position. We had fought with complete strength but the fight will continue," she said.

The Commonwealth Games gold medallist put her shoes on the dais as she announced her decision to quit and left the press conference in tears.

On X (formerly Twitter), she wrote, "Whatever awards I have won for the country, I have won with your blessings, I will always be grateful to all you countrymen. Goodbye to wrestling."

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