Will end commercialisation in wrestling, says Ramdas Tadas

Nagpur, July 22

After filing his nomination for the president's post of Maharashtra State Wrestling Association (MSWA), MP and former wrestler Ramdas Tadas attacked the general secretary of dissolved MSWA Balasaheb Landge for commercilising the game of wrestling in the state and said he would end it if he becomes the president.

He was addressing media persons at Jawahar Vidyarthi Gruha on Friday. Tadas said, “In last five years the wrestling in the state has witnessed lot of commercilisation. The big companies used to run the game and they also earned lot of money. We raised our voice against it but nobody was there to listen to our concerns. Finally, we raised our voice against the style of functioning of Landge”, he said.

Tadas has also leveled serious allegations of misappropriation (to the tune of Rs 42 Lakh) by former general secretary Balasaheb Landge The MP also revealed that they tried to attract the attention of former MSWA president and NCP chief Sharad Pawar towards these issues but due to his hectic schedule he couldn't able to take the cognizance of it. Asked about future planning Tadas said, “ In future the efforts would be made to produce such wrestlers in the state who can win the medals in Olympics. We will also ask the state government to give some remuneration to the State wrestlers. We will try to develop the infrastructure for wrestling in each Maharashtra district . We have already demanded prestigious Hind Kesri championship in Vidarbha” , he said.

MSWA elections likely to be unopposed

Nagpur: The discussion has already started as to who will dominate the Maharashtra State Wrestling Association. BJP MP from Wardha and three-time Vidarbha Kesari Ramdas Tadas has filed his nomination for the president post. Arjuna awardee Latur's Kaka Pawar and Solapur's Dhaval Singh Mohite are also in the race for the presidency. Sources said that out of 45 district units in the state, 33 are supporting the Tadas group. Looking at the support to the Tadas group, there is also the possibility of unopposed election. Kaka Pawar has applied for both the posts of President and General Secretary. Applications have been received from Vijay Parate (Pune), Dhaval Singh Mohite (Solapur) for the post of Senior Vice President, Kaka Pawar (Latur), Sandeep Bhondve ( Pun) and Maharashtra Kesari Yogesh Dodke ( Pune) have filed the nominations for general secretary post. Mumbai's Sanjay Shetye has filed the only nomination for the post of treasurer. From the Nagpur district, Ganesh Kohale is in the race for the post of vice president and Anil Adamane is in the race for the executive member. Dilip Itankar and Harihar Bhavalkar filed nomination papers on behalf of Nagpur Nagar Akhada .