Congress candidate Vinesh Phogat has won a legendary victory in his maiden race in "Rashtriya Godha" a strong blow to the BJP

New Delhi: Congress candidate Vinesh Phogat has won a legendary victory in his maiden race in Rashtriya Godha with the same style of defeating an opponent who had the upper hand from the beginning and capturing the victory in the last phase.

Even though the Congress's hopes were dashed in Haryana by BJP's surprise advance, Vinesh Phogat, who had been listed as the top contender by the BJP, won with extraordinary fighting spirit. 

Vinesh Phogat the former wrestler has won in the Julana constituency by 6,015 votes, defeating BJP's Yogesh Bairagi.  In a high stakes battle and her first foray into electoral politics, Olympian Vinesh Phogat has won by 6,015 votes, against former Army captain Yogesh Bairagi for the Julana seat in Haryana. The counting process till now has been full of twists and turns with early trends predicting Vinesh Phogat would be leading. However, soon after the ECI revealed vote margins, Yogesh Bairagi, the BJP candidate managed to overtake Phogat. His lead lasted for a while before Phogat was back on top.

After her return from the 2024 Paris Olympics, Phogat was announced as the Congress candidate from Julana. Her cousin Babita Phogat, who is also a wrestler, had unsuccessfully contested the assembly polls in 2019 from Charkhi Dadri.

Phogat has been at loggerheads with the BJP-led central government ever since her involvement with the wrestlers protests in 2023 against WFI chief Brij Bhushan Yadav, who is a BJP member. After a downturn in participation for women wrestlers in Haryana, those rethinking their career in the sport due to systemic issues of harassment have pinned their hopes on Vinesh Phogat becoming the state's sports minister to them return to the wrestling ‘akhada’.

Tired of politics in Rashtriya Godha, Vinesh came down and won back the Jhulana constituency for the Congress after two decades; That in first too!.. In a political battle that caught the attention of the entire country, Vinesh defeated the BJP candidate, Captain Yogesh Bhairagi, a former army officer..

Apart from being a victory to forget the medal loss in Paris Olympics, Vinesh's victory in Rashtriya Goda is a strong blow to the BJP, which tried to silence him for raising his voice against 'Goda's in politics'. Even as they retained power in Haryana with a hat-trick of victories, the defeat of their own candidate to Vinesh Phogat in Jhulana, which was seen as a battle of pride, left the BJP sorely tired.