An election campaign hoarding featuring wrestler turned politician Vinesh Phogat and artist Sumit Kajla, is pasted on back glass of a car during Phogat’s door-to-door election campaign for the upcoming state assembly elections in Julana in the northern state of Haryana.
Credit: PTI Photo
In recent years, Haryana has firmly established itself as India’s sporting powerhouse, with the state’s rural landscape playing a pivotal role in its dominance. In the recently concluded Paris Olympics, Haryana contributed a significant portion of the national contingent (24 athletes out of 110), the majority of whom hail from rural areas.
Sports have given the state pan-India recognition, and wrestling, in particular, has deep cultural roots in Haryana. At Paris, India was represented by six wrestlers, including five women, all from Haryana, belonging to farming families.
Wrestling, the state sport of Haryana, has a strong connection with the local culture, especially in rural areas, where the sport is a source of pride. For families in Haryana, having a wrestler in the household is a matter of honour, and entire villages often contribute to the training and support of local wrestlers, hoping to see them succeed on the world stage. This sense of community support has made Haryana a global leader in wrestling, producing numerous international medallists.
The significance of wrestling is such that celebrations for international medal-winning wrestlers often surpass those for top politicians. In rural Haryana, thousands of villagers turn out to welcome home their sports stars after a victory, showcasing the deep respect and admiration they hold for them.
Since the 2010 Commonwealth Games, village panchayats have actively honoured sportspersons from across various disciplines who win medals at the international level. This phenomenon has created a strong bond between the farming community and athletes.
Sports, Society, and Electoral Politics
This connection between sports and society in Haryana has not gone unnoticed by political parties, who have increasingly fielded sportspersons in elections. In the 2019 Haryana Assembly elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) fielded three Olympians — Yogeshwar Dutt and Babita Phogat in wrestling, and Sandeep Singh in hockey. Singh made history by becoming the first Olympian to enter the Haryana Vidhan Sabha.
For the ongoing Assembly polls, political parties are continuing with this trend. The Congress has fielded three-time Olympian Vinesh Phogat from Julana, while the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has nominated Kavita Dalal, a South Asian Games gold medallist in weightlifting and India’s first woman WWE participant. The BJP has chosen former Indian kabaddi captain and Asian Games bronze medallist Deepak Hooda from Meham.
Phogat’s candidacy carries particular weight, as she was a key figure in the wrestlers' protest, challenging exploitation and abuse in Indian wrestling. Her role in advocating for women's rights, especially in a state infamous for gender discrimination, has made her a symbol of women’s empowerment. Her popularity was evident when she returned from the Paris Olympics to a rousing welcome, with thousands accompanying her from Delhi airport to her village in Charkhi Dadri.
In Haryana’s rural communities, sports offer more than just glory — it offers a path to upward mobility. Sportspersons often secure government jobs, whether in the Indian Railways, services, paramilitary forces, or Haryana Police, providing their families with financial stability. This has only increased the reverence for sports in rural Haryana, where industrialisation is lacking, and job opportunities are scarce.
The political party in power wants to show its generosity towards the sporting class, aiming to please the voters in rural areas that produce the majority of the state’s sportspersons. The state offering the highest cash incentives in India for national and international medal winners is either the result of the government’s compulsion or its vision to prioritise sports.
Sports and Farmers' Protest
Wrestling, as well as kabaddi, has been central to rural life in Haryana. These sports, deeply connected to the agrarian culture, thrive after the harvest season when local villages organise hundreds, sometimes thousands, of wrestling and kabaddi competitions, with farmers contributing to the prize money.
In the final months of 2020, the agrarian belt of Punjab and Haryana witnessed a farmers' agitation that reshaped the political dynamics in both states. As the 2024 parliamentary elections concluded, the BJP faced a harsh reality. In Punjab, it failed to secure a single seat, while in Haryana, its seat tally dropped from 10 to five. Now, in the ongoing Haryana Assembly elections, the incumbent BJP-led government is struggling, especially in rural constituencies, where a backlash from the farming community has become evident.
The deep connection between farming and sports has forged a bond between the two, which has manifested in electoral politics as well. The wrestling, kabaddi, and stars from other sporting disciplines who participated in the farmers’ protest against the Narendra Modi government’s agricultural policies were seen as champions of the rural cause. The Singhu and Tikri borders, key sites of the protests, saw more than 100 athletes at any given time, supporting the movement in various capacities. This bond has translated into electoral support, particularly in Jat-dominated areas, where many of Haryana’s top athletes hail from.
The Jat community, which makes up nearly a quarter of Haryana’s population, holds sway over more than 35 of the state’s 90 Assembly seats, making them key players in the election’s outcome.
Many of Haryana’s top sportspersons come from Jat backgrounds, which gives them an edge in elections, especially in Jat-dominated areas. The caste dynamics, combined with the respect athletes command, create a potent mix that boosts their electoral prospects.
In this ongoing election, another notable candidate is international shooter Arti Singh Rao, who hails from the Yadav community. The daughter of Union minister Rao Inderjit Singh, a former international shooter, she is contesting from Ateli Vidhan Sabha on a BJP ticket, continuing the trend of athletes entering politics.
Krishna Poonia, who is married in Rajasthan, the first sportsperson from Haryana to enter electoral politics, contested on a Congress ticket from Rajasthan in 2013 and became an MLA in 2018.
Poonia’s success laid the groundwork for future athletes to follow in her footsteps.
(Saurabh Duggal is a journalist, and author of AKHADA - Authorised biography of Mahavir Singh Phogat. X: @duggal_saurabh.)
Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.