Her huge fame and fan-following notwithstanding, star wrestler and Congress candidate Vinesh Phogat is faced with a tough multi-corner electoral fight in her ‘sasural’ assembly constituency of Julana in the upcoming Haryana assembly elections. A report by Rajesh Moudgil
An Olympian wrestler-turned-politician, the Congress candidate Vinesh Phogat seems to have been locked in a multi-corner bout in the Julana constituency, a key seat in the state’s Jat heartland, making it one of the most-watched electoral fights in upcoming October 5 Haryana assembly elections.
Julana is Vinesh’s “sasural’’ as her husband Somvir Rathee belongs here while she hails from village Balali in Charkhi Dadri district.
Vinesh is the first Indian woman wrestler to recently reach the Olympics final at Paris, the stage where she was disqualified after being found overweight by about 100 grams in the 50-kg category; Vinesh subsequently announced her retirement from the game. She joined Congress on September 6 last and was given a ticket by Congress to fight from Julana seat.
A star grappler, Vinesh faces Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) candidate Kavita Dalal, who herself is a former WWE wrestler and who claims substantial support from about six villages having Jats with Dalal `gotra’. Adding to the possible disadvantage to Vinesh, there is sitting MLA of Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) Amarjit Dhanda; JJP is a splinter outfit of Indian National Lok Dal (INLD). The rival party INLD, has fielded Surinder Lather, with a large number of Jats of Lather gotra in the constituency; The INLD has also forged an alliance with BSP this time here.
All these candidates belong to the Jat community in the constituency which is Jat-dominated and it amply indicates a possible split in the votes. There are about 80,000 Jat votes in Julana constituency with about 1.85 lakh votes, out of which nearly 40% are Jats, 40,000 SC votes, 33,000 OBC and 22,000 Brahmin voters.
Vinesh is also facing a daunting challenge from BJP’s Capt Yogesh Bairagi, a non-Jat candidate backed by OBC and SC as well as Brahmins who also have a major chunk of votes here. The saffron party is also throwing its weight behind its candidate Capt Bairagi, who is a trained pilot and is also known for his relief works during the Covid-19 pandemic and Chennai floods.
Another possible disadvantage for her seems to be from the danger from within as there are said to be some of Congress leaders who are said to be anguished over last minute denial of party ticket to them by selecting her. The local Congress leaders had been active even ahead of the declaration of the candidates. They include former MLA Parminder Dhull, Dharmender Dhull and Rohit Dalal and they are said to have distanced themselves from Vinesh’s campaign.
Julana is a stronghold of INLD. While Congress’ Sher Singh won from here twice in a row in 2000 and 2005, INLD’s candidates won this seat in 2009 and 2014 and Amarjit Dhanda of JJP, a splinter outfit of INLD, won in 2019.
Vinesh, however, has been a crowd-puller as she boldly undertakes her poll campaign in her chaste Haryanvi language as “Julana ki Bahu’’ (daughter-in-law of Julana), not forgetting to remind the gatherings of her protest against former president of the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI), Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, who was accused of sexually harassing female wrestlers. She claims that she fought against that powerful man and performed well in the Olympics but unfortunately missed the medal.
Apart from Congress’ Vinesh, there are also two sportspersons fielded by BJP – Aarti Singh Rao, an international skeet shooter, who is the daughter of Union minister Rao Inderjit Singh, and Deepak Hooda, former captain of national kabaddi team, as candidates from Ateli and Meham assembly seats, respectively.
