It is for the first time that two of the four acclaimed sportspersons, both women, fielded by different political parties in the recently held assembly election, won their respective seats and made it to the 90-member Haryana assembly. A report by Rajesh Moudgil
While the BJP has scripted a history by winning the state assembly election for the third consecutive time with its best showing till date, it is also for the first time that two famed sportspersons, both women, have made it to the state assembly. In all, there were four sportspersons in the fray for the 90-member assembly.
The ace Olympian wrestler Vinesh Phogat, who won from Julana seat on Congress ticket while, Arti Rao, an international skeet shooter, won from Ateli seat on BJP ticket. Arti, is daughter of Union minister Rao Inderjit Singh. It was their debut electoral battle for both of them. While Julana was the most watched fight because of Vinesh, the stakes were also high at Ateli where Arti fought a battle of prestige as her father and Union minister Rao Inderjit is the tallest Ahir leader.
Vinesh who defeated BJP’s Capt Yogesh Bairagi, a former commercial pilot, by 6,015 votes, also faced sitting Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) MLA Amarjit Dhanda and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) nominee Kavita Dal, also a well-known former WWE player, besides others.
It may be recalled that Vinesh along with another Olympian wrestler and Padma Shri recipient Bajrang Punia had recently joined Congress; while Vinesh was given a party ticket, Bajrang was appointed as the working president of All Indian Kisan Congress.
Both of them were in news for leading the wrestlers’ protest over sexual harassment charges against former senior BJP MP and the then Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, last year. They were backed by two-time chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and his MP son Deepender Hooda.
A graduate from Delhi University and an international rifle shooter who represented India for 18 years in international events, Arti too faced a neck-and-neck fight with his immediate rival BSP’s candidate Attar Lal and won by a narrow margin of 3,085 votes.
The fourth sportsperson in the fray this election, who, like Kavita Dalal, also failed to make it to the state assembly, was Deepak Hooda, former captain of national Kabaddi team, a BJP candidate from Meham seat.
Notably, it was not the first time that the sportspersons had tried their hands in the electoral fights as in the past also, several medal-winning sportspersons – who had done well on the world sports arena – had taken a political plunge, though there were only a few success stories.
In the 2019 assembly elections, the 2008 Olympic bronze winning boxer Vijender Singh had unsuccessfully contested from South Delhi seat on Congress ticket; In the 2019 Haryana assembly election the same year, the 2014 Commonwealth Games gold medalist wrestler Babita Phogat had entered politics and lost her debut contest from Dadri seat as a BJP nominee. The famed wrestler, Yogeshwar Dutt fought the 2019 assembly election from Baroda seat and again in 2020 by-election from there on BJP ticket, but lost on both the occasions.
The only exception in 2019, however, was the former national hockey captain Sandeep Singh who successfully fought the 2019 assembly election from Pehowa seat on BJP ticket and was made sports minister in the then Manohar Lal Khattar government. He had, however, resigned from the sports portfolio after a case of sexual harassment was registered against him on a complaint by a woman coach. He was denied a party ticket this October election.
Earlier, Krishna Poonia, the Commonwealth Games gold medalist in discus-throw, who hailed from Haryana and had successfully fought an election on Congress ticket from Sadulpur seat in Rajasthan in 2018, had but lost to Olympic silver medallist Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore in 2019 Lok Sabha election from Jaipur (rural) seat.
Also, in 2009, former Indian cricketer Chetan Sharma had unsuccessfully contested from Faridabad on the BSP ticket.
Pertinently in the neighbouring Punjab, former Indian hockey captain Pargat Singh, who is a sitting Congress MLA, has won the third term in a row from Jalandhar Cantt seat.
