Ace wrestler and Congress leader Bajrang Punia congratulated Vinesh Phogat, who is leading from the Julana assembly seat in Haryana’s Jind district. As per the Election Commission’s website, Phogat is on track to win the seat with a lead of 5,231 votes against her nearest rival, BJP’s Yogesh Kumar.
Bajrang Punia, who recently joined the Congress along with Vinesh, expressed his pride in her achievement, posting in Hindi on X (formerly Twitter):
“Many congratulations to the country’s daughter Vinesh Phogat for her victory. This fight was not just for one Julana seat, it was a fight against the strongest oppressive forces in the country. And Vinesh emerged victorious.”
Despite Vinesh Phogat’s strong lead, Congress has raised concerns over discrepancies in the vote count data shown by the Election Commission (EC). Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh accused the EC of slowing down the display of real-time election trends, alleging that outdated information is being shared to influence the results in favor of the BJP.
Meanwhile, as counting continued, BJP candidates were leading in 49 out of 90 constituencies, while the Congress led in 35 seats. Independent candidates and members of INLD and BSP are also leading in some constituencies. Despite earlier exit polls predicting a Congress victory, the BJP is edging towards a hat-trick win in the Haryana Assembly election.
In other key races, Congress leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda was leading from the Garhi Sampla-Kiloi seat, defeating his nearest rival, BJP’s Manju.
Counting of votes from the October 5 assembly election began at 8 AM on Tuesday. As per the EC data at 12:40 PM, counting was almost complete in most constituencies, with results expected to be finalized soon.
