Wrestlers Vinesh Phogat and Bajrang Punia met the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi here on Wednesday, as speculations intensified about Phogat contesting the Haryana Assembly polls on a Congress ticket.
Their meeting comes a day after the Congress’ Central Election Committee (CEC) convened to finalise the list of candidates for the October 5 elections.
It is learnt that Congress may offer Phogat either the Charkhi Dadri or Julana seat. Sources said the CEC has shortlisted 59 candidates, comprising 27 of the party’s 28 sitting legislators, amid talks of the Congress having a pre-poll alliance with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).
Commenting on the ongoing speculations regarding Phogat’s political future, Deepak Babaria, the All India Congress Committee (AICC) in charge of Haryana, said the final list of candidates would be released by September 4.
But he had clarified that there was no discussion on Phogat or Punia’s candidature at the meeting. Sources said that AAP is demanding at least 10 seats, while Congress is offering only seven.
However, the ruling BJP in the state launched a scathing attack on the potential alliance between Congress and AAP, saying “it is the weaker organisation that feels the need to make compromises.”
Ever since Phogat, 29, who missed out on an Olympic medal in Paris after she was disqualified for being overweight hours before her final in the 50 kg category, returned to India, Congress leaders have been meeting her. Rohtak MP Deepender Hooda was the first politician to reach IGI Airport in Delhi to welcome her.
Vinesh Phogat met Deepender Hooda, his father, two-time Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, and her wrestler husband Somvir Rathee at the Congress leaders’ residence in Delhi on August 23. On August 31, she joined protesting farmers at the Shambhu protest site on the Punjab and Haryana border. When asked about contesting the Haryana elections, Phogat replied, “I will not talk about politics. I have come to meet my family.”
Sources said the Congress is actively finalising the names of as many as 2,556 leaders who have expressed interest in getting tickets for the polls. The elections in Haryana are scheduled in a single phase on October 5, with the counting of votes set for October 8.
This story is based on an IANS wire feed. Only the headline has been changed.
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