Haryana polls: Julana, the most-watched electoral battle

Chandigarh: With the ace wrestler, Vinesh Phogat locked in a multi-corner bout in the Julana constituency, this key seat in the state’s Jat heartland has become one of the most-watched electoral fights in the upcoming October 5 Haryana assembly elections.

Vinesh was the first Indian woman wrestler to reach the Olympics final in Paris, the stage where she was disqualified after being found overweight by about 100 grams in the 50-kg category, and who had subsequently announced her retirement from the game, joined Congress and was given the party ticket by Congress to fight from Julana.

Her fame and popularity notwithstanding, the star grappler Vinesh is facing a daunting challenge from her rival candidates including 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'.

Adding to Vinesh’s difficulties, there is sitting MLA of Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) Amarjit Dhanda while Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) has fielded Surinder Lathar who also claims to have a huge backing of the Lathar 'gotra'. All four candidates belong to the Jat community in the constituency which is Jat-dominated – immensely indicating a possible split in the votes; There are about 80,000 Jat votes in Julana.

Notably, Vinesh is also facing a daunting challenge from BJP’s Capt Yogesh Bairagi, a non-Jat candidate backed by OBC and SC as well as Brahmins who also claim to have a major chunk of these votes here. Capt Bairagi is a trained pilot and is also known for his relief works during the COVID-19 pandemic and Chennai floods.

However, Vinesh’s other adversity is the danger from within the party as there are said to be some Congress leaders who are said to be anguished over the last-minute denial of the party ticket to them by selecting Vinesh. The front runners for the ticket are local Congress leaders who had been active even ahead of the declaration of the candidates; they include former MLA Parminder Dhull, Dharmender Dhull and Rohit Dalal and they are said to have distanced themselves from Vinesh’s campaign.

Interestingly, Julana is seen as a stronghold of INLD; While Congress’ Sher Singh won from here twice in a row in 2000 and 2005, INLD’s candidates won this seat in 2009 and 2014 and Amarjit Dhanda of JJP in 2019; the JJP is a splinter outfit of INLD.

According to unofficial caste statistics, there are said to be about 80,000 Jat votes in the Julana constituency with about 1.85 lakh votes, 40,000 SC votes, 33,000 OBC and 22,000 Brahmin voters.

Her hurdlers notwithstanding, Vinesh has been a crowd-puller as she boldly undertakes her poll campaign in her chaste Haryanvi language as 'Julana ki Bahu' (daughter-in-law of Julana) as her husband belongs here while she hails from village Balali in Charkhi Dadri district.

She, however, does not forget to remind the gatherings of her protest against Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, who was accused of sexually harassing female wrestlers. She says that she fought against that powerful man and performed well in the Olympics but unfortunately missed the medal.

Not first to enter the poll arena

Meanwhile, Vinesh is not the only sports star to have entered the poll arena in Haryana as there have been several others from the state who have taken an electoral plunge in the past albeit with little success.

While the 2008 Olympics bronze medallist boxer Vijender Singh unsuccessfully fought Lok Sabha polls from South Delhi, Commonwealth Games gold medallist wrestler Babita Phogat lost the 2019 assembly polls from Haryana’s Dadri seat on BJP ticket.

While the London Olympics bronze medallist wrestler Yogeshwar Dutt has been defeated twice from the Baroda assembly seat on a BJP ticket in 2019 and 2019, former India cricket Chetan Sharma also unsuccessfully fought a Faridabad Lok Sabha seat on a BSP ticket in 2009.

However, the only success, a renowned sportsman fielded by BJP is Sandeep Singh, a former hockey captain, who won from Pehowa assembly seat in 2019 and was made sports minister. He has, however, been denied a party ticket this time following a sexual harassment case registered against him by a female coach. The Commonwealth Games gold medallist in discuss throw Krishna Poonia did not contest from Haryana but won in 2018 from Rajasthan’s Sadulpur assembly seat on a Congress ticket.

However, this time around, the BJP has fielded two sportspersons- Aarti Singh Rao, an international skeet shooter, who is the daughter of Union minister Rao Inderjit Singh and Deepak Hooda, former captain of national kabaddi team, as candidates from Ateli and Meham assembly seats, respectively.