Gonda (UP), Sep 6 (PTI) Former BJP MP and ex-WFI chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh on Friday sought to downplay wrestlers Vinesh Phogat and Bajrang Punia's foray into politics, saying any BJP candidate will defeat them if they contest in Haryana and also offered to campaign in the upcoming assembly elections should his party allow.
Talking to journalists at his residence Vishnoharpur, about 40 km from the district headquarters, he said, "These wrestlers made a name in the sport and became famous on the strength of wrestling. Now after joining Congress, their name will be erased.'' Earlier, Phogat and Punia, who were at the forefront of the wrestlers' protest against the then WFI chief Singh, joined the Congress with a vow of "not being scared or backing off".
There are indications that both or at least one might contest the October 5 assembly polls in Haryana.
Reacting to this development, Singh said, "These people consider politics to be a wind. They are thinking that they will win the assembly elections from Haryana. They can contest from any assembly seat in Haryana, a small BJP candidate will defeat them." He went on to add: "If my party directs, I will also go and campaign in the Haryana assembly elections. I claim that I will get maximum support from the people of their community. I am ready to campaign in favour of the BJP candidate in front of them as well." He also claimed that during the Lok Sabha elections, the "people of Haryana were saying that if you come and contest elections from here, we will make you win, but at that time I had refused them".
Singh said many Congress leaders joined the wrestlers' protests in the name of getting justice for them.
"One after the other, many wrestlers were made their pawns. The Congress, along with the wrestlers, has destroyed wrestling in this country," he alleged.
He claimed that during the rule of the Congress, wrestling was not known in the country. "After becoming the president of the WFI, due to my efforts, people started knowing about wrestling in India and wrestlers won medals in international competitions." He also said that when the wrestlers were protesting in Delhi, a wrestling competition of junior and senior level was organised in Nandini Nagar (Gonda).
"But these people protested and got that competition cancelled. The result was that junior and senior players could not wrestle at their age," Singh alleged.
He also reiterated that the protests were a "conspiracy of the Congress".
"What I said on the first day, I stand by it even today and today the whole country is saying the same thing. Now I don't need to say much about this," Singh told PTI.
On Thursday, while speaking with journalists at a smartphone distribution function in a private school here, Singh said, "Senior Congress leaders from Haryana - Deepender Singh Hooda and Bhupinder Singh Hooda - are hatching conspiracy against me." At the event, Singh also said, "Now I do not need to say much about this. I will not speak much on this episode, otherwise this thing will reach Haryana immediately. At this time the whole country is waiting for Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh to say something on this issue." "When the women wrestlers had levelled allegations against me, I had then said that this is a conspiracy of the Congress," he said.
"There was a conspiracy against me in 1996 as well. At that time, my wife Ketki Singh had become an MP. I was in Tihar Jail those days as part of a conspiracy. After this, there was a conspiracy against me in 2023 as well. Then my younger son Karan Bhushan Singh became an MP in my place," he said.
In 1996, Singh was arrested under the TADA law in a criminal case in Mumbai and was then lodged in Tihar Jail. In his place, the BJP fielded his wife from Gonda in the Lok Sabha elections and she was elected.
After the allegations made by the women wrestlers, the BJP did not give Singh a ticket from Kaiserganj and made his son Karan Bhushan Singh the candidate.
Karan Bhushan Singh won the Lok Sabha polls by a margin of over 1.48 lakh votes defeating SP's Bhagat Ram.
"Before this incident, no one took a selfie with me. Now after this incident, heroes and heroines also take selfies, even saints and sages are taking selfies," Singh said in his speech.
(This report has been published as part of the auto-generated syndicate wire feed. Apart from the headline, no editing has been done in the copy by ABP Live.)