‘Vinesh as MLA will give women new confidence’: Julana village gets set to honour ‘bahu’ with 100gm gold medal

“I have already identified a spot atop a tree for Sunday morning so that I can clearly see our bahu Vinesh when she lands at our village school,” says Bimla Devi, 70, who came to enquire about Phogat’s arrival time.

During her visit, the Rathee Khap will honour Phogat with a 100-gram gold medal, while the Chaugama Khap will award her Rs 1.81 lakh.

On Saturday, a group of women gathers at the home of Bakhta Khera’s sarpanch, Poonam Rani, a relative of Phogat. Sitting among them, Poonam, says: “If Vinesh becomes an MLA, it will give a message to the village girls and women that they too can enter politics, apart from sports and education. This will give a new confidence to women.”\

Vinash Phogat Rathee’s supporters at her farm in Bakhta Kheda village convene to devise a winning strategy for her election campaign, following the Congress party’s announcement of a rival candidate for the Julana constituency on September 7, 2024. Express photo by Jasbir Malhi

Poonam says, “Nobody earlier knew Bakhta Khera but now, the entire country would know this is also a village on the map of Haryana. This is all because of Vinesh.” Her husband Chap Singh Rathee says: “Vinesh was disqualified in the Paris Olympics. Now, voters want to take revenge for it.”

Phogat was disqualified ahead of her final match for the gold medal at the Paris Olympics last month because she exceeded the permissible 50-kg weight limit by just 100 grams.

On the outskirts of the village, Phogat’s father-in-law Rajpal Rathee is sitting among sarpanches, villagers, and other prominent residents from the neighbouring villages, pledging their support to her poll debut.

Surjeet Malik, a former sarpanch of Shamli Kalan village, says: “The biggest thing is that now everyone knows which village is the home of Vinesh’s in-laws.”

A native of Balali village in Haryana’s Charkhi Dadri district, Phogat married Somvir Rathee in 2018. Somvir’s father Rajpal, an ex-serviceman, was the village sarpanch from 2000 to 2005. A few years ago, the family had bought a home in the neighbouring Kharkhoda town of Sonipat district so that Somvir and Phogat could practise wrestling there.

Happy over Phogat’s candidature, Rajpal says: “At the time of her marriage, we were thinking she might win a medal at the Olympics one day. But we had never thought she would enter politics and earn a name. We believe in clean politics.”

On Sunday, Phogat is expected to visit Bakhta Khera village in Julana in Jind district, which is the native village of her wrestler husband Somvir Rathee. Express Photo by Jasbir Malhi

In Julana town, a hotel owner Baljeet Lathar, however, says the election may not be a cakewalk for Phogat. “We should not forget that as many as 86 aspirants had applied for the Congress ticket from Julana who were working in the constituency for 10 years. But the Congress preferred to field Vinesh Phogat. It would be interesting how this plays out in the polls,” he says.

The JJP’s sitting Julana MLA and candidate, Amarjeet Singh Dhanda, too, expects infighting in the Congress over Phogat’s candidature. “These ticket aspirants are angry about the nomination of a new candidate,” Dhanda says, claiming that he has done a lot of work in the constituency.

However, Naveen Sangwan, a Congress leader from Brar Kheda village, says the “JJP is not in the contest this time. “There are 85,000 Jat voters out of 1.82 lakh in Julana seat,” Sangwan says, suggesting that “Jats may vote en masse” for Phogat, who belongs to the Jat community.

Traditionally, the rural Julana seat has been a stronghold of Chautalas. In 2009 and 2014, the Om Prakash Chautala-led INLD had won the seat. In 2019, following the INLD split, the breakaway JJP faction clinched the constituency. The Congress had last won this seat in 2000 and 2005.