New Delhi: Two days after wrestlers Vinesh Phogat and Bajrang Punia joined the Congress party, the Northern Railway (NR) has begun the process of accepting their resignation of wrestlers, railway sources said. With this, Vinesh Phogat may not face any hurdle to contest the Haryana assembly election from Julana on Congress ticket.
Both Phogat and Punia are now expected to be relieved "as early as possible," as per railway sources. The two top wrestlers recently joined the Congress in the presence of the party general secretary in-charge (organisation) K C Venugopal at the AICC headquarters in Delhi on last Friday. The Congress has also announced the candidature of Phogat to contest from the Julana assembly constituency in Haryana.
Earlier, the Railways issued show cause notices to both the wrestlers after they announced their decision to join the Congress party amid the Haryana assembly elections. In the wake of this, questions were raised whether Vinesh Phogat would be able to contest the election as the three-month notice period would make her ineligible to enter the poll fray.
Now, by initiating the process of accepting the wrestlers' resignation, the Railways seems to have relieved the two players from the service rules which necessitate them to serve the three-month notice period.
Vinesh Phogat's entry into the Haryana elections has created a lot of buzz in the political circles, raising high hopes among the cadres of the grand old party in the poll-bound state.
Meanwhile, Vinesh Phogat reached Julana assembly constituency on Sunday when she was warmly welcomed by the villagers and Khap Panchayats. During this visit, Vinesh started her election campaign when she reacted to the statement of Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh. She said that she will inaugurate her election office the day after tomorrow. "The country has given me a lot. Whatever I am today is because of wrestling. I want to thank the Congress party very much, not only because they gave me the ticket but that when we were sitting on the road, Priyanka Gandhi came to support us. At that time we felt that we should leave our country, but she (Priyanka Gandhi) said that we should not lose courage and we should answer these people through wrestling."
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