Wrestler Vinesh Phogat was on Friday named as a Congress candidate for the Haryana Assembly election, hours after she joined the party.

She will contest the election from the Julana constituency in the Jind district. The Haryana election will be held on October 5 and the results will be announced on October 8.

Phogat, along with fellow wrestler Bajrang Punia, joined the Congress on Friday at the party headquarters in Delhi.

Addressing reporters after joining the Congress, Phogat spoke about the protests against former Wrestling Federation of India chief and Bharatiya Janata Party leader Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, in which she participated.

In January last year, several top Indian wrestlers, including Sakshi Malik, Phogat and Punia, launched a protest against Singh accusing him of intimidation and sexual harassment. The protestors were manhandled by the police at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar on May 3, 2023.

“When we were being dragged on the road, all of you were with us except the Bharatiya Janata Party,” Phogat said on Friday.

The three-time Commonwealth Games gold medalist said she was proud to be “associated with an ideology that stands against the injustice done to women and is ready to fight for their rights from the streets to the Parliament”.

All sitting Congress MLAs renominated

The Congress on Friday gave tickets to all its 28 sitting MLAs in its first list of candidates for the Haryana election.

Former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda will contest from Garhi Sampla-Kiloi, while state party chief Udai Bhan will be in the fray from Hodal.

The Congress has named Mewa Singh as its candidate from Ladwa, the seat from where BJP leader and Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini is contesting.