While most of the 28 incumbent MLAs are Hooda loyalists, a few of them are also close to senior Congress leader and Sirsa MP Kumari Selja, who is considered Hooda’s bete noire.
Earlier, on the possibility of any MP contesting the polls, Babaria said after the CEC meeting, “To date, no MP has been permitted to contest Assembly elections.”
In a big boost to Congress, Olympian wrestlers Bajrang Punia and Vinesh Phogat joined the Congress earlier in the day.
Punia and Phogat joined the party in the presence of Congress general secretary KC Venugopal, party leader Pawan Khera, Haryana Congress chief Udai Bhan, and Babaria.
Vinesh Phogat recalled women wrestlers’ fight over sexual harassment allegations against former BJP MP and former WFI chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh.
“The fight is continuing, it hasn’t ended yet. It’s in court. We will win that fight as well… With the new platform that we are getting today, we will work for the service of the nation,” she said.
“When we were being dragged on the road, all parties except the BJP were with us. I feel proud that I have joined a party which stands with women and is ready to fight from sadak to sansad,” she added.
The two well-known wrestlers joined the Congress almost a month before the Haryana assembly polls. The wrestlers resigned from their respective positions in Northern Railways earlier in the day.
Punia has been appointed working president of Kisan Congress.
Punia won bronze at the Tokyo Olympics, while Vinesh Phogat became the first woman wrestler to reach the Olympics final.
Phogat announced her retirement from wrestling a short while after she was disqualified from the Paris Olympic Games after being found overweight by about 100 gm in her 50-kg category weigh-in ahead of the gold medal match.
