Indian wrestlers Vinesh Phogat and Bajrang Punia will contest the assembly elections in Haryana on a Congress ticket. Their seats have been decided. Vinesh Phogat will contest from Julana in Haryana and Bajrang Punia from Badli. Earlier on Wednesday, Vinesh Phogat and Bajrang Punia met Congress MP Rahul Gandhi. Bajrang Punia and Vinesh Phogat were part of the protest in 2023 over allegations of sexual harassment against former BJP MP and then chief of the Wrestling Federation of India Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh.
There were speculations for a long time that Vinesh and Bajrang Punia could contest the Haryana Assembly elections on a Congress ticket. In this sequence, on Wednesday, they met Rahul Gandhi and Congress General Secretary KC Venugopal. Now it has been confirmed that Vinesh Julana and Bajrang Punia will contest from Badli seat. Sources say that Congress initially wanted Vinesh to contest from a seat near Gurgaon, but Vinesh wanted to contest from Julana only.
Recently, Vinesh Phogat had expressed her support for the farmers on the completion of 200 days of the Kisan Andolan. She had reached the Shambhu border. When Vinesh was asked about entering politics, she replied that she cannot say right now whether she will contest the elections or not, but she fully supports the farmers.
Let us tell you that Vinesh missed the medal in the 50 kg wrestling competition in the Paris Olympics 2024. After ensuring the silver medal, on the day when she had the final match for gold, she was eliminated from the competition before the match due to being 100 grams overweight. Due to this, she could not get any medal. A day after this incident, on August 8, Vinesh announced her retirement from wrestling.
The Congress Central Election Committee has approved the names of candidates for 66 out of 90 seats in Haryana. However, the names have not been announced. According to Congress sources, the list of candidates is going to be released in a day or two. Voting for the assembly elections in Haryana will be held on October 5. Counting of votes will take place on October 8.
