Vinesh wins first political bout, while her Congress lags in Haryana

Chandigarh, Oct 8
Olympian wrestler Vinesh Phogat on Tuesday won her debut election, getting elected from Julana seat in Jind district even as her Congress faced an uphill task in the Haryana Assembly elections.

Phogat secured a total of 65,080 votes to defeat her Bharatiya Janata Party rival, professional pilot Yogesh Bairagi, by a margin of 6,015 votes. While Bairagi, who is the Vice President of the party's state youth wing and also making his electoral debut, got 59,065 votes, Surender Lather of the Indian National Lok Dal was the distant third with 10,158 votes.

Sitting MLA Amarjeet Dhanda of the regional outfit Jannayak Janta Party (JJP), an offshoot of the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD), only got 2,477 votes.

Meanwhile. the AAP's high-profile candidate Kavita Dalal, India's first woman World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) wrestler, only managed 1,280 votes.

The contest in Julana was touted as between a 'beti' (daughter)against a 'bahu' (daughter-in-law) as Dalal hails from Julana, while Phogat belongs to Balali in Charkhi Dadri district but her in-laws belong to Julana.

Commonwealth and Asian Games gold medallist Phogat, 30, and Olympic medallists Sakshi Malik and Bajrang Punia were the high profile faces last year in the "grappling battle" against then Wrestling Federation of India chief and former BJP MP Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh.

Likewise, Dalal, 38, accused the then president of the Indian Weightlifting Federation Harbhajan Singh in 2023 of sexual harassment during her career. She won a gold medal in the 75 kg category at the 2016 South Asian Games.

While Phogat is the first Indian woman grappler to reach the Olympics final but was disqualified after being found overweight by about 100 grams in her 50-kg category weigh-in, Dalal, who joined the AAP in 2022, began her career in weightlifting before switching over to professional wrestling.

The Congress has won the Julana seat for the first time since 2009. However, belying the exit polls, it is trailing the BJP, which seems set to form its third consecutive government in the state.