New Delhi, Sep 4 (Agency) Ahead of the Haryana Assembly election, wrestlers Vinesh Phogat and Bajrang Punia on Wednesday met former Congress President and Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, giving a buzz that both the decorated wrestlers may enter the political arena. The Indian National Congress on its social media handle X has posted a photo of Bajrang Punia and Vinesh Phogat with Rahul Gandhi captioned, “Vinesh Phogat ji and Bajrang Punia ji met Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi”. With the meeting of the wrestlers with Rahul Gandhi, there are speculations in the political circles that Vinesh Phogat and Bajrang Punia may contest the upcoming Haryana assembly election on the Congress ticket. These speculations gained momentum as both the wrestlers had a long meeting with Congress General Secretary KC Venugopal.
It is being said that former Chief Minister of the Haryana Bhupindra Singh Hooda is in favour of giving tickets to both the players. If Congress ensures to give them tickets then both can resign from the government jobs they got through sports quota.It may be mentioned that Vinesh Phogat and Bajrang Punia had led an agitation at Jantar Mantar against former Indian Wrestling Federation president Braj Bhushan Sharan Singh, who was surrounded by allegations of sexual harassment of women wrestlers, and during that time many Congress leaders including Rahul Gandhi had come out to support their movement. A few days back, Vinesh Phogat had visited Shambhu border, the agitation site of farmers and said that the government should listen to them.