Vinesh Phogat, Congress candidate from Julana seat
Haryana assembly elections are heavily campaigned and political parties are making all efforts to woo voters. Meanwhile, Congress has announced the first list of 32 candidates. This list has been released after several meetings. The party has expressed confidence in 28 of its existing 29 MLAs in Haryana and fielded them again. Interestingly, wrestler Vinesh Phogat, who joined the Congress on Friday, has also entered the election fray. He got the ticket from his mother-in-law Julana.
Wrestling champion Vinesh Phogat formally entered politics. He joined hands with the Congress even before the announcement of candidates in Haryana. Before joining the party, met Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and then Mallikarjun Kharge yesterday. In fact, Vinesh Phogat’s name is also hotly debated as BJP leader and former Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh was accused of sexual harassment on behalf of women wrestlers. Women wrestlers also protested in Delhi regarding these allegations. Vinesh Phogat was also involved in this protest.
Congress is trying to improve its image
The party has been waiting for a long time to win the Julana seat from where the Congress has fielded Vinesh Phogat, but it is not getting any success. Congress last won this seat in 2005, after which its condition started to deteriorate. The situation reached such a level that in the last election of 2019 he got only 12440 votes. This time a big stake has been played to improve the deteriorating image of the party. He will be pitted against sitting MLA Amarjit Dhanda of the Janayak Janata Party (JJP). The real fight for this seat will be between three parties, including JJP, BJP and Congress.
How many times did Congress win Julana seat?
The Julana assembly seat held its first assembly election in 1967, opening the account of the Congress, but the party could not maintain its victory and was defeated in 1968 by Narayan Singh of the Swatantra Party. The Congress made a comeback in 1972, but lost the seat again in 1977. Janata Party won. This was followed by Lok Dal in 1982 and 1987, Janata Party in 1991 and Haryana Vikas Party in 1996. After a long time, Congress made a comeback in the year 2000 and captured this seat in 2005 as well. The party managed to win twice in a row, but has been waiting for a win since then. Overall, Congress has won four times from here. Indian National Lok Dal won this seat in 2009 and 2014 and in 2019 Janayak Janata Party hoisted the victory flag for the first time.
What do the 2019 election numbers say?
According to the Election Commission, the number of voters in Julana seat in 2019 assembly elections was 173645 out of which 126375 voters exercised their franchise. A total of 72.78 percent voting took place in this seat. From here, JJP has fielded Amarjit Dhanda, BJP has fielded Parminder Singh Dhul and Congress has fielded Dharmendra Singh Dhul. JJP got 61942 votes, BJP 37749 and Congress 12440 votes. If we talk about percentage, JJP got 49.01 percent, BJP 29.87 percent and Congress 9.84 percent votes. The condition of JJP and Congress was very bad. It was a third party. The main contest was between JJP and Congress. This is the reason why the party has tried to script a win by changing the candidate this time through Vinesh Phogat.
