Yogeshwar ready for bout, sure of big win in Cong bastion

Bhartesh Singh Thakur

Tribune News Service

Gohana, October 14

Olympic medallist Yogeshwar Dutt aka ‘Pehalwan’ is ready to take on veteran Shri Krishan Hooda in his first electoral bout in Baroda constituency. Both have declared each other as their main opponent.

“BJP candidate Yogeshwar is a kid. He plays wrestling as a sport. He has no experience in politics,” said Shri Krishan, 74, who is contesting his seventh Assembly elections with just one defeat in his career that too in 1991. He had won the last two elections from the Jat-dominated Baroda constituency and brought it in the Congress-fold first time after 37 years in 2009. Yogeshwar, 36, is drawing crowds in villages. Besides addressing from village chaupals, visiting houses of prominent ones for ‘chai-paani’, being a chief guest in local kabaddi match and posing for selfies, he is giving a personal touch to his campaign.

“I have come to take your blessings. I will be with you round the clock. The BJP is winning. Increase my margin. Jai Hind, Jai Bharat,” he told a crowd at Dhurana village in his speech lasting a few minutes.

“There is no need to say anything against the opponents. I am on my own,” he told The Tribune. The BJP has never won in Baroda. Even the Congress wrested it after a gap of 37 years in 2009.

“I am ready for the challenge. My first medal came in the Doha Asian Games in 2006 at the back of my father’s death and despite a knee injury. In 2009, I had two major surgeries. But the medals continued to come,” said Yogeshwar. On Jat vs non-Jat divide, he said, “People are intelligent. They are fed up of this kind of politics.”

Varinder Singh, a resident of Dhurana village, said, “Pehalwan is winning. This village is voting for the BJP.”

On the other hand, Shri Krishan’s strategy is to make the contest as Khattar vs Bhupinder. He is all praise for the former CM, whom he once defeated in 1987. Later, he also left Garhi-Sampla Kiloi seat for him in 2005 when he became the CM.

“There is no Modi-wave here. Every house has a BA or MA child. They know what this government has been doing. The crime rate and unemployment has risen. Farmers and government employees are unhappy. People haven’t seen such a rule earlier,” he said, while sitting with his supporters at his house in Gohana.

The former CM, who draws substantial crowd in the area, also referred to him as his elder brother in a rally at Ahulana village. Jitendar Malik, a farmer and resident of Ahulana, said, “Bhupinder Malik of JJP is not a weak candidate. He is in the fight too.”