Celebrities making beeline for the ruling BJP continued as international wrestler Babita Phogat and her father Mahavir Phogat, the real life characters behind blockbusters Hindi film Dangal, joined the BJP on Monday.
Phogat family hails from Haryana — which is expected to go to polls later this year — and the BJP hopes to reap political dividends by inducting the sports icon from the State. Babita Phogat is a Commonwealth Games gold medalist.
Arjuna awardee Babita Phogat told reporters that Modi had written history by scrapping Jammu & Kashmir’s special provisions and described herself as a “big fan” of him.
Babita, 29, had also defended Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar after he courted a controversy on his “brides from Kashmir” remarks.
“Manohar Lal Khattar ji has not made any such statement which portrays women wrongly and I urge the media not to distort his statement,” she had said.
Joining the party in presence of Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports Kiren Rijiju, party’s general secretary incharge of Haryana Anil Jain, and its State chief Subhash Barala, Phogats were effusive in their praise for the Prime Minister.
BJP media head Anil Baluni said Mahavir Phogat had lived the ideals of the Central Government’s scheme, “Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao”, by coaching her four daughters as wrestlers against societal pressure of that time.
Mahavir Phogat, a Dronacharya awardee who was chief of the Jannayak Janata Party’s sports wing, said only Modi was capable of taking big decisions like “avenging” the Pulwama terror attack, which had martyred over 44 CRPF personnel in February this year, or “repealing Article 370.”