Olympian wrestler Vinesh Phogat has won the Julana seat in Haryana's Jind district for the Congress. This is Congress's first win in 15 years. With this win, Vinesh has become the first woman to win the Julana Assembly seat.
The Julana Assembly seat is in the Jind district. There are five assembly seats in Jind district are Julana, Safidon, Jind, Uchana Kalan and Narwana. According to journalists, there is a close contest in Uchana Kalan and Narwana. While Congress can win the remaining three seats.
The biggest shocker from Julana was the thrashing of incumbent MLA Amarjeet Dhanda who raked in only 2,477 votes. In the last elections in 2019, he had defeated the BJP's Parminder Singh Dhull by a margin of over 25,000 votes.
Phogat won the Julana seat with a margin of 6,015 votes. She polled a total of 65,080 votes. The BJP's Yogesh Kumar came in second with 59,065 votes. The INLD's Surinder Lather came in a distant third with 10,158 votes.
Vinesh Phogat married fellow wrestler Somvir Rathee in 2018, who is from the Bakhta Kheda village in the Jind district of Haryana. This village comes under the Julana Assembly segment. This is a Jat-dominated area.
Who Were The Candidates From Julana?
On the Julana seat, the Aam Aadmi Party bet on Kavita Dalal, a former wrestler in WWE, popularly known as 'Lady Khali', against Phogat. The BJP had fielded former Captain Yogesh Bairagi and JJP fielded its current MLA Amarjeet Singh Dhanda from this seat.
According to the figures released by the Election Commission on Sunday, the overall voting percentage in Haryana was 67.9 and Julana recorded a turnout of 74.66%. The highest voting of over 80% took place in the Ellenabad Assembly seat of Sirsa district in the state.