BJP top brass warns Brij Bhushan; asks him to refrain from passing comments on Vinesh Phogat, Bajrang Punia

BJP warns ex-MP to avoid comments on wrestlers Vinesh Phogat and Bajrang Punia amid Haryana Assembly polls.

The BJP has warned its former MP Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh to refrain from passing any comments on wrestlers and now Congress members Vinesh Phogat and Bajrang Punia, after blowback from sections in Haryana, which is to go to Assembly polls next month.

Top sources in the BJP confirmed to The Hindu that Mr. Singh’s adverse comments on the wrestlers were “not taken well” among certain sections in Haryana and that it was an “unnecessary side show” with regard to the BJP’s campaign. BJP president J. P. Nadda is said to have spoken to Mr. Singh on maintaining a “judicious silence” on the two wrestlers who had levelled charges of harassment against him during his tenure as the president of the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI),

Mr. Singh had earlier accused Ms. Phogat and Mr. Punia of leading protests against him on alleged charges of harassment in January 2023, as being at the behest of Congress leaders Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Deepender Hooda, and Priyanka and Rahul Gandhi. “This is a movement of the Congress. And today this thing has been proved. In this entire movement, the conspiracy that happened against us, the Congress was involved in it and Bhupinder Hooda was leading it,” Mr. Singh had said the day the two wrestlers joined the Congress.

Ms. Phogat, on her part had, after joining the Congress, said the BJP was supporting Mr. Singh while the Congress supported the wrestlers, when they “were being dragged on the roads” in Delhi. Mr. Punia also echoed Ms. Phogat, saying that the Congress stood with them during their tough times.

Ms. Phogat’s near miss of an Olympic medal in the recently concluded Paris games because she was just 100 gm above her weight category led to a storm of sentiment in her favour. The BJP sources said that in such a situation, for Mr. Singh to make such comments was not helping the party’s case in Haryana, a State where the BJP is attempting a return to power for a third term in front of a resurgent Congress.

“Vinesh Phogat captured the imagination of people by her fights in the Olympics in Paris and in terms of optics and tone, Brij Bhushan’s comments are inadvisable,” said a senior BJP office bearer.

Ms. Phogat has begun her Assembly campaign with a roadshow in her constituency of Julana on Sunday (September 8, 2024.)