Chandigarh: Olympic wrestler and Congress candidate Vinesh Phogat won her maiden election on Tuesday, defeating her nearest BJP rival, Yogesh Kumar, from the Julana assembly seat in Haryana, according to the Election Commission. Phogat defeated Kumar by a margin of 6,015 votes.
Even as the Congress suffered a stunning debacle at the hands of the BJP after the Grand Old Party led in the early rounds of counting, Phogat triumphed over the BJP and recaptured the Julana constituency for the Congress after two decades.
Her win had all the thrills of a wrestling bout. While Phogat led in the early rounds of polling, she began trailing to the BJP candidate. But with a stunning turnaround, the Olympian came from behind to win the election.
Phogat, along with wrestlers Bajrang Punia and Sakshi Malik, were the prominent faces who protested against Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, former BJP MP and then chief of the Wrestling Federation of India, who they accused of harassing young wrestlers.
Ever since Phogat, 29, who missed out on an Olympic medal in Paris after she was disqualified for being overweight hours before her final bout in the 50 kg category, decided to contest from Julana on Congress ticket, the BJP had named her in the top of the list of opponents that the party wanted to defeat.
Phogat triumphed in her maiden electoral contest in the hometown of her husband and fellow wrestler, Somvir Rathee. When her opponent claimed that she was an outsider who would leave Julana after the election, Phogat transformed herself into 'Julana ki beti' (the daughter of Julana) and campaigned as a newlywed woman.
She was seen campaigning, covering her head with a chunni (shawl). With the win, Phogat seems to have capitalised on her image as the "daughter of the nation," a title bestowed upon her after her heartbreak in Paris.
