India TV Chunav Manch: Babita Phogat, one of the star campaigners of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Haryana, attended the special session of India TV Chunav Manch in Chandigarh on Friday ahead of the state Assembly Elections slated on October 5.
"I respect the party's decision. I stand by the party's decisions. I work for the BJP symbol and will continue to work. I am not disappointed. I only introspect what mistakes I have committed," Babita Phogat said when asked about not being given a ticket for the Assembly polls.
Babita Phogat on cousin Vinesh Phogat
When asked about her relationship with Vinesh Phogat, she said, "We will always remain sisters. Whichever area that the party assigns to me for campaigning, I will go."
Talking about the discontent expressed by her father following the political entry of Vinesh Phogat, Babita Phogat said, "If you watch her interviews of 10 days back, she herself is saying that she had a plan to play till 2032. Who changed her plan? If her guru said that she should have played, and she was performing well, why would he not want her to play further? I had left wrestling in 2016. I left the game due to my injury."
When asked about Vinesh's decision to join politics, Babita said, "It is her decision to join politics. She could have decided to join Congress from before. She is married and it is said that most things have to go forward according to them. When Manu Bhaker returned to India after winning medals, her coach was there. But when Vinesh returned, Hooda went to receive him. The coach who worked so hard on her for number of years, and someone else is standing in place of him beside her, who would not be pained?"
"My father had once said that he would go to the airport to receive the one who would bring Olympics medal. He never went to receive anyone of us, but he wanted to go to receive Vinesh from the airport. But the kind of scenes that unfolded, he was hurt," the retired wrestler said.
'Responsibility of losing weight lies with the athlete': Babita Phogat
Babita said that the responsibility of losing weight lies with the athlete. "The Prime Minister cannot go to lose weight for them. I was also disqualified before Vinesh due to being overweight. There is definitely someone influencing Vinesh. I have never played politics with athletes," she said.
Her remarks came in reference to Vinesh's allegations that there was a conspiracy behind her disqualification from the Olympics final. She had alleged that she did not receive any help from the central government.
Babita Phogat on Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh
When asked about what kind of person Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh is, Babita said, "I didn't have much to do with him. We only met when necessary. Otherwise, I was focused on my practice." When asked about the treatment of female wrestlers at Jantar Mantar, Babita said, "The athletes should have fought their battle in court." Babita also mentioned that in Haryana, farmers, jobs, or wrestlers are not an issue.
She added that PM Modi has respected the farmers and provided MSP (Minimum Support Price) on all essential crops.
Haryana Assembly Elections 2024
Haryana will go to Assembly Elections on October 5 and the counting of votes will be done on October 8, along with those of Jammu and Kashmir polls. In the 2019 Assembly polls in Haryana, the BJP became the single-largest party with 40 seats and Congress won 31 seats in the 90-seated Assembly.
