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Boxing

Gautam Gambhir, Vijender Singh to contest Lok Sabha polls

Gautam Gambhir, Vijender Singh to contest Lok Sabha polls
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By

Sounak Mullick

Published: 23 April 2019 3:17 AM GMT
Sports personalities seem to have opted for politics as their secondary option ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha Elections, especially in Delhi where two eminent figures will contest in the polls this year.

Former Indian cricketer Gautam Gambhir has recently joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and will contest from East Delhi region.

On the other hand, boxer Vijender Singh will face off with other candidates from the South Delhi region representing the Congress party.

The BJP had won all the seven seats in the Delhi Lok Sabha back in 2014, hoping to repeat the same this year. While the cricketer joined the party last month, he expressed his thoughts about the current Prime Minister and said that he was, “impressed by prime minister Narendra Modi’s vision.”
“I am impressed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision. I have contributed to the field of cricket and now hope to do more for the country,”
he said. On the other hand, the Olympic medallist has been named as a candidate after the Congress party felt that he has the capability to win the seat due to his popularity and he is someone who the people will be able to relate to. It is also learnt from reports that Vijender is expected to draw a lot of votes in the South Delhi constituency because the area is neighbour to Haryana and has a lot of ‘Jat’ and ‘Gurjar’ voters. A senior Congress leader said, “His (Singh’s) candidature has been finalised by Congress president Rahul Gandhi. We are sure he will be able to win the seat. We wanted to field a celebrity and at the same time, someone whom the people will be able to relate to.” The party wanted to field wrestler Sushil Kumar as their candidate but that did not happen after all.
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