Wrestlers Vinesh Phogat, Bajrang Punia set to join Congress today, Vinesh likely to contest polls

New Delhi [India], September 6 (ANI): Wrestlers Vinesh Phogat and Bajrang Punia are scheduled to meet Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge at his residence in Delhi at 2 p.m. followed by official joining at Party Headquarters on Friday.

Sources said that Bajrang Puniya will not be contesting the Assembly Election he is likely to be appointed as the co-chairman of the campaign committee of Haryana Congress for the Haryana Assembly polls and Vinesh Phogat will contest the election. Her seat will be finalized by the evening.

On Wednesday, Vinesh Phogat and Bajrang Punia met Lok Sabha LoP and Congress MP Rahul Gandhi in the national capital.

Polling in Haryana will be held on October 5. Votes will be counted on October 8.

At the Paris Olympics, Vinesh was disqualified from the 50 kg gold medal bout after she was found to be 100 gms overweight. The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) also dismissed her petition to be awarded a joint silver. She announced her retirement from wrestling on August 8, a day after her disqualification. Since her return home there has been intense speculation that she would enter active politics like her cousin Babita who is a BJP MLA.

Meanwhile, Congress and AAP have started seat-sharing talks for the Haryana assembly polls which could lead to the continuation of the alliance they had in the state during the Lok Sabha polls earlier this year.

The Congress has formed a three-member committee, which includes the party’s screening committee chairman for the state Ajay Maken, AICC in-charge of Haryana Deepak Babaria and former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, for seat-sharing talks with Aam Aadmi Party and Samajwadi Party.

Party general secretary KC Venugopal will oversee the work of the committee.

Congress sources said that the party is willing to give 3-5 seats to AAP and one to the Samajwadi Party in Haryana which has a 90-member assembly.

They said the discussions with AAP follow the suggestion of party leader Rahul Gandhi, who is the Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha. The sources said that during the Congress Central Election Committee meeting, Rahul Gandhi discussed the possibilities of contesting elections as INDIA bloc and said that the party should make efforts to ensure that the votes of the alliance are not divided.