New Delhi: Amid high possibility of wrestler Vinesh Phogat making electoral debut in the upcoming Haryana Assembly polls, the Congress has offered her three seat options to contest the elections. The three Assembly seats offered by the party includes – Charkhi Dadri, Badhra, and Julana, sources said on Wednesday.
Although no formal announcement has been made yet, Phogat is likely to contest the Assembly polls in Haryana as Congress candidate. The Olympian wrestler along with Bajrang Punia earlier today met Congress leader and Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi and party’s general secretary KC Venugopal, fuelling speculation about their possible political debut.
Why Congress offered these 3 seats to Phogat
According to the sources, the Congress has proposed three seats for Phogat and asked her to pick anyone one of them from where she wants to be fielded. Phogat has some personal connection with all three seats — Charkhi Dadri, Badhra, and Julana — offered by the Congress. While Charkhi Dadri is Phogat’s home district, wrestler’s village Balali comes under Badhra Assembly constituency. Phogat’s in-laws live in Julana. Now, it remains to be seen which seat the wrestler chooses.
Bajrang Punia gets 2 seat options
According to sources, Bajrang Punia who is also likely to contest the Haryana polls on Congress ticket, has been given the option to contest from either Bahadurgarh or Bhiwani by the party. Both these constituency are dominated by Jat community.
While Punia has indicated to contest from Badli and Sonipat, the Congress is reluctant to field him from any of the two seats as both constituencies are represented by two strong faces of the party. The party does not want to replace sitting MLA Kuldeep Vats from Badli as he is one of the prominent Brahmin faces of Haryana, the sources said. The current Congress MLA from Sonipat, Surendra Panwar is in jail in the ED case and Congress wants to give a ticket to him or someone from his family from there, they added.
Both Phogat and Punia, who were the prominent faces of 2023 the lengthy protest against former Wrestling Federation of India chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, accused of sexual harassment by women wrestlers, have yet not given a final confirmation on contesting elections from anywhere.
