News agency YEARS shared two notices from Northern Railway stating that they had accepted the resignations.
Northern Railway accepts the resignations of Bajrang Punia and Vinesh Phogat who had submitted their resignations before joining the Congress party. photo.twitter.com/crlkcwcl9v
— AIN (@ANI) September 9, 2024
After joining the Congress, Phogat was announced as the party’s candidate from Julana constituency for the upcoming Haryana elections, while Punia was appointed as the working president of the All India Kisan Congress by the party.
Haryana polls: Cong fields Bhupinder Hooda from Garhi Sampla-Kiloi, Vinesh Phogat from Julana
The Grand Old Party on Friday released its first list of 31 candidates for the Haryana Assembly elections, fielding former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda from Garhi Sampla-Kiloi, state unit chief Udai Bhan from Hodal and wrestler Vinesh Phogat from Julana.
The list was released after the Congress Central Election Committee (CEC) met here, with Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, former party chief Sonia Gandhi, party general secretary in-charge KC Venugopal, All India Congress Committee (AICC) in-charge of Haryana Deepak Babaria and Hooda, among others, attending the meeting.
Apart from Hooda, Bhan and Phogat, the Congress has fielded Mewa Singh from Ladwa to take on Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini.
The party also fielded Surender Panwar from Sonipat, Bharat Bhushan Batra from Rohtak, Kuldeep Vats from Badli, Chiranjeev Rao from Revari and Neeraj Sharma from Faridabad NIT.
Earlier, on the possibility of any MP contesting the elections, Babaria said after the CEC meeting, “Till date, no MP has been allowed to contest the Assembly elections.” Asked about the possibility of Phogat contesting the elections, he said, “I think it has been decided that he will contest the elections from Julana.” The Congress is also in seat-sharing talks with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) for the Haryana elections, and both sides are negotiating hard.
However, prospects for a deal looked bleak on Friday as both sides hardened their stance.
The Congress has been engaged in intense consultations for the past few days to explore the possibility of an alliance with the AAP for the Haryana elections, even as some of its leaders have expressed reservations about an alliance with the Arvind Kejriwal-led party.
Sources said the Hooda faction of the grand old party and some other leaders are opposed to a seat-sharing deal with the AAP. According to these leaders, Kejriwal’s party does not have much ground in Haryana.
Olympians Phogat and Bajrang Punia, who were at the forefront of the wrestlers’ protest against former Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) chief and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh last year, entered the political arena on Friday by joining the Congress with a promise of “neither fear nor back down”.
Hours after joining the Congress, Punia was appointed as the working president of the All India Kisan Congress. He now appears unlikely to contest the elections.
The 90-member Haryana Assembly is scheduled to go to polls on October 5 and the counting of votes will take place on October 8.
(with contributions from PTI)
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