Haryana Assembly Elections | ‘BJP is Still Shielding Brij Bhushan’: On the Road With Vinesh Phogat
At 9 am on Sunday, 22 September — 13 days before the state of Haryana goes to vote — the Congress party office in Jind’s Julana Assembly constituency was packed with hookah-smoking men in white kurtas paired with starched white and pink turbans. They were waiting for their ‘halke ki bahu‘ — Vinesh Phogat — to make an appearance before they went about their day’s work.
Phogat, a world-renowned wrestler is the wife of Somvir Rathee, also a wrestler, who hails from Julana’s Garwali Kheda village, which, these men told The Quint, makes her the daughter-in-law of the entire constituency.
That morning the wrestler-turned-politician was running late for her door-to-door campaign which starts at 9 am sharp from the party office everyday. Tea, served with boondi ke laddoo, kept the supporters busy.
Seeing a handful of reporters get restless, Vikas continued, “We’ve seen her in Delhi at the protest. Even their tear gas shells and those iron nails couldn’t keep her down. What will a minor illness do?”
Vikas and several other Phogat supporters in Julana are convinced that she’d emerge victorious with a margin of about ‘40,000-50,000 votes’.
But up against candidates from Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Dushyant Chautala’s JJP and Azad Samaj Party (ASP) alliance, INLD and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) alliance, and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Phogat is in tough ride in the constituency where the Congress has not won any election in 15 years.
The Quint caught up with her for an interview.
Here are some excerpts:
