Haryana: In a first, 2 ace sportswomen win their debut electoral fight

Chandigarh: In a first, two of the four star sportspersons, both women, fielded by different political parties in the October 5 Haryana assembly election, have made it to the 90-member House.

It was their debut electoral battle for both of them.

Besides Olympian wrestler Vinesh Phogat, who won from Julana seat on the Congress ticket by a margin of about 6,000 votes, Arti Rao, an international skeet shooter, won from the Ateli seat on the BJP ticket with a margin of about 3,000 votes. Arti is the daughter of Union Minister Rao Inderjit Singh.

Among her other rivals at Julana, Vinesh also faced Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) candidate Kavita Dalal, who was a famous former WWE wrestler. The fourth candidate who also failed to win his maiden election was Deepak Hooda, former captain of the national Kabaddi team, a BJP candidate from the Meham seat.
However, it was not the first time, the sports persons tried their hands in the electoral fights as in the past also, several medal-winning sportspersons - who had done well on the world sports arena - had taken a political plunge, though there were only a few success stories.

In the 2019 assembly elections too, 2008 Olympic bronze-winning boxer Vijender Singh had unsuccessfully contested from South Delhi sesat on Congress ticket, while in the Haryana assembly election the same year, the 2014 Commonwealth Games gold medallist wrestler Babita Phogat lost her contest from Dadri seat as a BJP nominee.
 
Another famed wrestler Yogeshwar Dutt also fought the 2019 assembly election from the Baroda seat and again in the 2020 by-election from there on a BJP ticket, but lost on both the occasions.

However, former national hockey captain Sandeep Singh had successfully fought the 2019 assembly election from the Pehowa seat on a BJP ticket and was made sports minister in the then Manohar Lal Khattar government. He, however, resigned from the sports portfolio after a case of sexual harassment was registered against him on a complaint by a woman coach. He was denied a party ticket this time.
 
Krishna Poonia, the Commonwealth Games gold medallist in the discus throw, who hailed from Haryana and had successfully fought an election on a Congress ticket from Sadulpur seat in Rajasthan in 2018, had lost to Olympic silver medallist Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore in 2019 Lok Sabha election from Jaipur (rural) seat.

In 2009, former Indian cricketer Chetan Sharma had unsuccessfully contested from Faridabad on the BSP ticket.