 "Congress candidate Vinesh Phogat during an election campaign for the upcoming Haryana elections, in Julana. PTI")
Vinesh Phogat has hit back at former BJP MP Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, who accused her of cheating, stating that the ex-WFI chief, himself accused of sexual harassment, is not the “country.”
“Brij Bhushan is not the country, people are standing with me, they are my own,” Vinesh said while campaigning in Julana. “My own people have supported, I will succeed in all the wars. The pain of not getting medal had lessened as I arrived at the airport in India. I have been facing challenges.”
Vinesh has been nominated as a Congress candidate from the Julana assembly seat for the upcoming Haryana assembly elections.
“Whatever I have won in wrestling, it was because of people. Hopefully, I will be successful in this as well. I will talk about the wrestlers’ protest at Jantar Mantar later, BJP had allowed us to sit there,” she added.
Earlier in an interview, Brij Bhushan had said that Vinesh qualified for the Paris Olympics by “cheating”. He also claimed that Vinesh’s disqualification from the Paris Olympics was a result of God punishing her for the misdeeds.
“I want to ask Vinesh Phogat whether a player can give trials in 2 weight categories in a day? Can the trials be stopped for 5 hours after the weigh-in? You did not win the wrestling, you went there by cheating. God has punished you for the same,” he told ANI.
Vinesh was disqualified from Paris 2024 after reaching the 50kg wrestling final as she failed the weigh-in by 100 grams. She also appealed against her disqualification and for a joint-silver at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) but her plea was dismissed as per the United World Wrestling (UWW) rules.
Vinesh retired from wrestling after failing to win an Olympic medal and joined Congress ahead of the assembly election in her state.