Political ‘Dangal’ for Wrestlers Babita Phogat Join Saffron BJP
NEW DELHI : Wrestling gold-medalist Babita Phogat and her father and coach Mahavir Phogat, who inspired Amir Khan’s film ‘Dangal’, joined the ruling BJP today ahead of polls this year in Haryana, their home state. BJP-ruled Haryana will vote for a new 90-member assembly later this year.
Babita, from Haryana’s Bhiwani, is the sister of Geeta Phogat, who had won India’s first-ever wrestling gold medal at the 2010 Commonwealth Games. Geeta is also India’s first female wrestler to have qualified for the Olympic Games.
Babita Phogat, 29, is a three-time Commonwealth gold and silver medalist. She and her father inspired the 2016 Bollywood blockbuster “Dangal” starring Aamir Khan about Babita and her older sister making it big in the male-dominated world of wrestling, mentored and coached by their father.
Dronacharya awardee Mahavir Phogat, who had joined Ajay Chautala’s Jannayak Janata Party before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, switched parties to join his daughter. Mahavir expected a ticket from the JJP but was instead made the chief of the party’s sports cell.
Earlier, the wrestler’s father confimed that he would join the BJP at Delhi’s Haryana Bhawan with his daughter. “Babita and I are on the way and heading towards Delhi”, he said. Coach Phogat also praised the BJP government for its recent decision on Kashmir, saying:
“The BJP government did great work by scrapping Article 370 and bifurcating Jammu and Kashmir into two union territories”.
He further hailed Manohar Lal Khattar’s government in Haryana “for providing the state with a transparent government and recruiting youth in a fair manner”.
Babita, a former sub-inspector in Haryana police, had earlier filed a case against the state government for holding her promotion to the post of deputy superintendent of police despite her exemplary performance in sports. She lost the case and subsequently resigned from service.
It is speculated that the wrestlers’ family, belonging to Balali village in the Charkhi Dadri district of the state, expects Babita to be fielded from either Badhra or Dadri assembly segments in the Charkhi Dadri district.
The younger Phogat sister, who is currently recovering from injury, wishes to bring home an Olympic gold someday. Babita has won 2012 World Wrestling Championship bronze and 2014 and 2018 Commonwealth Games gold medals.
