There is a growing demand to send Vinesh Phogat to the Rajya Sabha from Haryana.
Vinesh Phogat and Rajya Sabha… these two words have been echoing together in Haryana for the last 5 days. There has been a demand to send wrestler Vinesh Phogat, who was left out of the gold medal race in the Olympics, to the Rajya Sabha. This demand has been promoted by Leader of Opposition in Haryana Assembly Bhupinder Singh Hooda.
The Rajya Sabha seat that sent Vinesh to Delhi has fallen vacant due to the resignation of Congress’ Dipendra Singh Hooda, who won the Lok Sabha election from Rohtak. The Election Commission will hold elections on this vacant seat on September 3.
Nomination for this vacant Rajya Sabha seat will start from August 14. The tenure of this seat is till April 2026. In 2020, Dipendra Hooda was sent to Rajya Sabha from Congress in place of Kumari Shaileja. There are total 5 Rajya Sabha seats in the state. At present 3 seats are occupied by BJP and one Independent.
Vinesh Phogat’s name has come up
Vinesh Phogat was recently ruled out of the final match of the Olympics due to more reasons. Soon after this Olympic decision, Haryana Chief Minister Naib Singh Saini announced that the government would provide Vinesh with all the facilities and honors of a silver medalist. Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Bhupinder Hooda also played a big bet on Saini’s announcement.
Hooda said that if my party was in the government, I would have sent Vinesh to the Rajya Sabha. Since then, the words Vinesh and Rajya Sabha have been echoing in Haryana politics. Former Deputy CM Dushyant Chautala has also demanded to send Phogat to Rajya Sabha.
What gamble is Hooda playing with sports?
Assembly elections are to be held in Haryana after 2 months. The main contest here is between the ruling BJP and the opposition Congress. There are other parties in the fray, but they are only trying to make the fight triangular.
Vinesh Phogat hails from the Jat community, which constitutes about 22 percent of Haryana. Jats in Haryana are voting for Devi Lal and his successors as well as Congress. According to CSDS, the Congress has secured 64 percent of the votes of the Jat community in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, which is 31 percent more than in 2019.
Earlier the Jat votes were shared between Chaudhary Om Prakash Chautala’s party INLD and his grandson Dushyant Chautala’s JJP, but this time these parties got only 9 percent of the Jat votes. Hooda wants to further strengthen the Jat vote by demanding a Rajya Sabha seat for Vinesh.
Vinesh himself is from Charkhi Dadri, while his in-laws are from Jind. Jind has 5 assembly seats and in 2019 Congress won only one seat here. Charkhi Dadri has 2 assembly seats and Congress lost both in 2019.
Apart from these two political equations, Hooda is also trying to give a mental shock to the BJP before the elections. If Vinesh contests, BJP’s difficulties may increase in the Rajya Sabha elections before the assembly elections.
The reason is the multiplication of seats-
, Haryana has a total of 90 assembly seats. Currently 3 seats are vacant. According to this calculation, a minimum of 44 seats will be required to win one Rajya Sabha seat in Haryana.
, Congress currently has 32 MLAs with the support of independents. The JJP, which has 10 seats in the name of Vinesh, has also spoken of giving support. INLD’s Abhay Chautala and 2 independents are also against the government. All these have a total of 44 votes. The BJP and its independents have the support of only 43 MLAs.
, Nothing is clear whether Vinesh will contest the election or not. Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini has said that Hooda is doing politics on Vinesh Ko issue. Vinesh and his close relatives have not yet said anything about this.
