Chandigarh: Star wrestler and Congress candidate Vinesh Phogat won her debut electoral battle from Julana seat with a narrow margin of about 6,000 votes in the Haryana assembly election on Tuesday.
Vinesh, the first Indian woman wrestler to have reached the Olympics final at Paris – the stage where she was disqualified after being found overweight by about 100 grams in the 50-kg category; though she had 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. She was locked in a multi-corner seat Julana in Jind district – the state’s Jat heartland. Julana is Vinesh’s “sasural’’ as her husband Somvir Rathee belongs here while she hails from village Balali in Charkhi Dadri district.
Hers was the most-watched fight as she faced 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’. While the sitting MLA of Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) Amarjit Dhanda posed a threat to her, another rival party INLD, had fielded Surinder Lather, who has a large number of Jats of Lather gotra in the constituency. BJP’s Capt Yogesh Bairagi, a non-Jat candidate backed by OBC and SC as well as Brahmins also gave her a daunting challenge. She defeated Bairagi by a margin of about 6,000.
Another prominent winners was the country’s richest woman Savitri Jindal, mother of BJP MP from Kurukshetra Navin Jindal, who fought against BJP’s two-time MLA Kamal Gupta in Hisar and won by a margin over 18,000 votes.
Among other prominent winners were BJP caretaker CM Nayab Saini from Ladwa seat, BJP’s former home minister Anil Vij who won for the seventh time from Ambala Cantt, four-time MLA Arvind Sharma, Gohana, 4-time MLA Ghanshyam Saraf, Bhiwani and other senior leaders including Mool Chand Sharma, Ballabhgarh, Rao Narbir Singh, Badshahpur, Vipul Goyal, Gurugram and Krishan Panwar, Rajya Sabha member, who fought from Israna seat.
Among prominent winners from Congress included its tallest leader and two-time former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, former minister Ashok Arora, Paramvir Singh and Akram Khan. The main losers from Congress included its state president Udai Bhan from Hodal and Karan Dalal, a veteran, from Palwal seat.
Among the biggest losers in BJP included former ministers O P Dhankar, Badli, Capt Abhimanyu, Narnaund, and Speaker Gian Chand Gupta from Panchkula seat. While the top leader of INLD Abhay Chautala also lost from his home turf – Ellenabad seat, the JJP leader and former deputy chief minister Dushyant Chautala was trounced in Uchana Kalan seat.
