Will win each battle with people’s blessings: Vinesh Phogat as she starts poll campaign from Julana

Chandigarh: Wrestler and Congress candidate Vinesh Phogat on Sunday said she expects to win each battle with the blessings of people as kicks off her campaign for the upcoming Assembly election.

Phogat (30) has been fielded from the Julana Assembly segment for the upcoming Assembly poll.

Polling in Haryana will take place on October 5 while the counting of votes for the elections to the 90-member Assembly will take place on October 8. Phogat was accorded a warm welcome when she reached Julana as her supporters, including elderly people and women and members of various ‘Khaps’, greeted her with garlands and gave their blessings.

The Congress had on Friday released its first list of 32 candidates for the Haryana Assembly polls, naming her among the party candidates.

Olympians Vinesh Phogat and Bajrang Punia, who were at the forefront of the wrestlers’ protest against then WFI chief and former BJP MP Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, entered the political arena on Friday by joining the Congress.

Standing atop a car, Phogat took the blessings of people who surrounded her four wheeler to get a glimpse of her. Amid beats of a ‘dhol’, her supporters chanted ‘Vinesh Phogat zindabad.’

Replying to a question on former BJP MP and then Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, Phogat said, “Brij Bhushan is not the country. My country stands by me. My loved ones stand by me and they matter to me.”

Brij Bhushan on Saturday alleged that Phogat and Bajrang Punia were used by the Congress as “pawns” in a “conspiracy” to take control of the WFI and attack the BJP.