Wrestler-turned-politician and Congress candidate for Haryana Assembly polls Vinesh Phogat filed her nomination from the Julana seat in Jind district on Wednesday.She was accompanied by Congress leader and Rohtak MP Deepender Singh Hooda and Sonipat MP Satpal Brahmachari. Thursday is the last day of filing of nominations for next month's polls.
Speaking to reporters later, Deepender Hooda said Phogat will secure a "big win" for the party and exuded confidence that not just in Julana, the Congress will get an absolute majority in the Haryana Assembly under the leadership of Bhupinder Singh Hooda.
"People have made up their mind that under Hooda sahab's leadership, the Congress has to be brought to power and BJP has to be ousted," he said.
The BJP has fielded Yogesh Bairagi, a former commercial pilot, against Olympian wrestler Phogat in the Jat-dominated Julana Assembly segment. Though Phogat hails from Balali in the Charkhi Dadri district, her in-laws' hometown is Julana. Bakhta Khera village in Julana is the native village of her husband Somvir Rathee.
Speaking with a private channel, Phogat launched a verbal attack on the Indian Olympic Association chief, PT Usha, accusing her of clicking photographs with her on a hospital bed during the Paris Olympics and politicising the matter without offering much help.
Notably, Phogat became the first Indian woman to qualify for the wrestling final at the Games.
"I don't know what support I got there. PT Usha madam visited me at the hospital. One photo was clicked...Like you said, in politics a lot happens behind closed doors. Similarly, politics happened there (in Paris) as well. That's why I was heartbroken. Otherwise a lot of people are saying 'don't leave wrestling'. For what should I continue! There is politics everywhere," said Phogat said.
"You are on a hospital bed, where you don't know what's happening in life outside, you are going through one of the worst phases of your life. At that place, just to show everyone you are standing with me, aap bina bataye photo kheench rahe ho, fir social media pe daal ke bol rahe ho hum saath mein khade hain (clicked a photo without telling me and then putting it on social media to say you are standing with me). That's not how you show support. What was it more than (posturing)!,” she added.
