India’s international wrestling star Babita Phogat and her father Mahavir Phogatt have tread the road away from wrestling. They have joined Bhartiya Janata Party.
With the assembly elections round the corner in Haryana, the stalwarts of wrestling came into limelight with their standing in support to Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, where he got into controversy with his remarks on Kashmiri girls.
According to reports, the father-daughter duo joined the BJP party in ceremony held on Monday in the presence of Union Minister Kiren Rijuju.
The wrestler had backed the Chief Minister in her tweet, saying there was “nothing offensive” in what he said.
हरियाणा के मुख्यमंत्री मनोहर लाल खट्टर जी ने ऐसा कोई बयान नहीं दिया है जिससे हमारी बहन बेटियों के बारे में गलत बोला गया हो मेरी मीडिया से प्रार्थना है कि उनके बयान को गलत तरीके से जनता के सामने पेश ना करें @mlkhattar https://t.co/9nsSYPGRJd
— Babita Phogat (@BabitaPhogat) August 10, 2019
हरियाणा के मुख्यमंत्री मनोहर लाल खट्टर जी ने ऐसा कोई बयान नहीं दिया है जिससे हमारी बहन बेटियों के बारे में गलत बोला गया हो मेरी मीडिया से प्रार्थना है कि उनके बयान को गलत तरीके से जनता के सामने पेश ना करें @mlkhattar https://t.co/9nsSYPGRJd
— Babita Phogat (@BabitaPhogat) August 10, 2019
“Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar has not made any such statement that is offensive to our sisters and daughters. I urge media to not misinterpret his statement,” the Arjuna awardee had said while replying to a journalist on Twitter.
Inspired by the Phogat sisters rise to fame amidst fighting feudal mentality of the men in her state, Actor Aamir Khan made a film on their lives called ‘Dangal” in 2016. Before the elections in 2019, the senior Olympic coach Mahavir Phogat had joined a party launched by the former chief minister O P Chautala’s son Ajay Chautala. The Dronacharya awardee will switch sides by joining BJP. The development comes barely two months before the Haryana Assembly polls.Elections are due in Haryana later this year to the 90-member assembly.
Asked the reasons for joining the BJP, Mahavir Phogat said, we are impressed with policies and programmes of the Narendra Modi government.
Delhi: Wrestler Babita Phogat and her father Mahavir Singh Phogat meet BJP Working President JP Nadda, after joining the party. pic.twitter.com/GYOVO1NFjc
— ANI (@ANI) August 12, 2019
