It is about 7.30 am in Khera Bakhta village in Haryana’s Julana Assembly constituency and Vinesh Phogat, wearing a blue-beige striped night suit, white slippers, and several bead bracelets, is standing in a dingy room at the entrance to her in-laws’ house discussing the day’s programme with her assistant.

A security officer in a dark blue safari suit mills about and men drop in with their wives and daughters to request her for a photograph.

Vinesh obliges, poses and then rushes off to get ready.

“It’s a very tight campaign schedule,” her assistant says, “and there are 150 phone calls that need to be returned”.

A few minutes later Vinesh emerges carrying a small Armani Exchange handbag. She is wearing a green printed salwar-suit and sneakers. The kurta is too long, and the salwar balloons at her ankles.

Married to Somveer Rathi, a resident of Khera Bakhta, one of the 73 villages in Julana which is a mostly rural and agrarian constituency, Vinesh is referred to as “Julana’s bahu”, and the women of Khera Bakhta, her father-in-law, and her husband have all been campaigning for her.

The people’s winner

“In wrestling, I could control the outcome to a large extent. But here, it’s in people’s hands,” Vinesh told Frontline at the Congress’ office which is a 15-minute drive from the house.

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But there are many habits and drills from her training as a wrestler that are coming in handy.

“You know, the fear that we feel in sports and how we overcome it to play with confidence, that is definitely helping here,” she says. And then there’s the discipline of keeping a daily, punishing routine, giving it your best, and not thinking too much about the outcome.

On September 7, exactly a month after she was disqualified at the Paris Olympics after failing to make weight, the Congress announced Vinesh Phogat, 30, as their candidate from Julana. That day the elite athlete closed one chapter of her life to set off on a different course.

“I can put things in compartments in my mind and keep them shut till I am ready or want to deal with them,” she says, calling this self-preservation trick “god’s gift” to her.

The protest at Jantar Mantar, the alleged sexual harassment of female wrestlers, including her, by the former BJP MP and wrestling federation chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, and the heartbreak at the Paris Olympics are all locked in compartments in her head.

“Apne liye kab tak roti phiroongi? [How long will I keep crying for myself?] It’s best to forget yourself and march ahead for others,” she says, but then reminisces about wrestling which has been her life since the age of six. “Athlete ki best life hoti hai [Athletes have the best life].”

As she walks towards her first campaign stop for the day, her petite frame swaying in her ill-fitting salwar suit, her strangely clipped hair—trimmed by her coach on that fateful night in Paris when she tried everything to cut weight—is the only visible reminder she carries of the disappointment of being robbed of the medal she deserved.

When I ask why she has not fixed her hair, she laughs but does not say anything.

“Is it some sort of a reminder, a zid, a vow?” I ask again.

She responds, tangentially. “Mera mindset aisa hi hai —main zid karke hi kuch paati hoon.” (My mindset is like that—whatever I have achieved, I have only because of my stubbornness and persistence.)

Like Draupadi’s long untied hair in the Mahabharata, Vinesh Phogat’s jagged haircut, snipped too close in places, is like a constant reminder to the voters of Julana that they have to defend her honour.

“Vinesh Phogat is not fighting this election. People are fighting it and she is winning,” says Sandeep Mor, a local businessman who follows politics keenly.

But from the outer ring of Congress workers in Julana, plumes of discontent have been rising. Senior, old hands of the party in the district, the ones who have been with the party for a long time but are now being kept at a distance by Vinesh Phogat’s team, complain that she is relying on men who are not familiar with Julana or the Congress, or how elections are fought.

“It’s not clear to me if people around her want her to win or lose the election,” a senior district-level Congress leader told Frontline on the condition of anonymity and added that her “arrogant attitude” is not helping. “She thinks her celebrity status is enough to win the election.”

He does not meet her nor does he visit the Congress office, he says, but is working long hours to make sure she wins. “This is people’s election. Isko jitana hamari majboori hai [Ensuring that she wins is our compulsion]. Her win is a prestige issue for Julana and for Jats. If we lose, kaum ki besti hogi [it would be an insult for our community].”

The crowds at celebrity campaigns can be misleading, but in Julana you can sense a sympathy wave for the girl who defeated the world champion in Paris but was cheated of the medal she deserved. And then there is anger against the BJP over the farm laws and farmers’ protests, Agniveer, rising unemployment, paper leaks, lack of development, and general mismanagement.

By all accounts Vinesh Phogat is the winning candidate in Julana. But it is still a fight.

“When she began campaigning, she had a lead of about 50,000 votes. That gap has reduced by over 15,000 votes,” the Congress leader says and fears that there is an attempt to sabotage her elections and ensure that Vinesh loses again, by a 100 grams or more.

Haryana goes to the polls on October 5 to elect a 90-member State Legislative Assembly. Counting will take place on October 8.

For the girls of Jantar Mantar and the nations daughters

Julana, with 1,85,565 registered voters, is the hottest seat in the Haryana elections, but it is also a tough seat.

The constituency has not voted for a Congress candidate in the last three Assembly elections, and in the last election in 2019, the Congress polled just 12,440 votes, ranking third after Jannayak Janta Party’s (JJP) 61,942 and the BJP’s 37,749 votes.

Vinesh’s opponents, a mix of debutants and veterans, include Surendra Lather, a former excise and taxation commissioner, who is fighting on the Indian National Lok Dal-Bahujan Samaj Party ticket. The AAP has fielded Kavita Dalal, a WWE wrestler, and the BJP’s candidate is Captain Yogesh Bairagi, an ex-fauji and the party’s youth leader. Bajrangi, belonging to the backward class, is the only non-Jat candidate from Julana that has always sent a Jat to the State Assembly.

Also in the fray is sitting MLA Amarjeet Dhanda, fighting on the Dushyant Chautala-led Jannayak Janta Party and Chandrashekhar Azad’s Aazad Samaj Party’s alliance ticket.

But Vinesh has had a winning start.

To contest from Julana on a Congress ticket, 86 aspirants—the highest amongst Haryana’s 90 seats —had submitted their candidature, along with the non-refundable Rs.20,000 fee. Vinesh Phogat was not among the 86.

Vinesh, who began campaigning on September 11, has covered all the 73 villages at least once and is now making longer stops to visit chaupals [halls]—villages in Haryana have three to four community-specific chaupals (community spaces) where they hold meetings, host wedding guests.

In Karsola village, her first stop of the day, the chaupal is painted a shade of green-blue and an Ambedkar portrait hangs on a wall. As she enters, people surge towards her with garlands, hands reach out to bless her. Laddoos sit on a table next to small water bottles.

Whether it is her euphoric road shows or these more intimate meetings, the numbers of women at her campaign stops has been impressive.

In Haryana’s patriarchal society, where women are known as someone’s behen [sister], beti [daughter], or bahu [daughter-in-law], and most cover their faces, they have stood on JCB earthmovers to shower rose petals on her while shouting “hamari beti [our daughter]”. They cheered as she was weighed against laddoos and stood waiting for hours to offer her milk in steel glasses.

In Karsola, after she has rattled off the Congress’ key promises—a 200 square yard plot and money for constructing a house, two lakh jobs, free electricity up to 300 units, LPG cylinder for Rs.500—a woman tells her that she and many others in the village do not have ration cards to claim subsidised ration.

“Card banwana mera kaam hai [Making cards is my job],” says Vinesh.

“Women are turning up because they are emotional about the fight that had started in Jantar Mantar and they want results—for those girls, but also for their own daughters. In us, they see icons and have a lot of expectations.”

Is it scary, I ask.

“No, not at all. What is there to be scared of? These are my people, they will have expectations. Their expectations motivate me,” she says.

It is the reason that she wakes up every day at 7 am instead of her usual 12 noon.

“It gives me jeene ki, kuch karne ki icchcha. Jab tak unki umeed hai, mujhe har din uthne ki icchcha hai. Umeed nahin hogi toh main ghar baith jaaogi.” (It gives me the desire to live, to do something. As long as they have hope, I wish to get up everyday. If there is no hope, I would just sit at home.)

It is 11 am and 34°C. As she steps out, an old man with a walking stick arrives to bless her and hands her a Rs.100 note.

Sleep-deprived, tired, sweating, flushed, and nursing an upset stomach, she says that if she wins, the first thing she will do is fix the problem of drinking water in Julana which has alarming levels of pollutants.

“I am going to homes and drinking matke ka paani [water from clay pots]. Meri halat kharab ho rahi hai is paani se. [I feel ill drinking this water] People who drink this water everyday, can you imagine what their condition must be?” she says.

“Aur mere se zyada paani ki importance kisi ko pata nahin hai [And no one knows the importance of water more than me],” she says, laughing, opening the Paris compartment, but then shutting it quickly.

Her convoy includes a car with speakers on top, and every time she enters or leaves a village, a song blares: “Bharat desh ka hira ye saari desh mein chai… Vinesh Phogat hai aayi, saari duniya main chaai.”

The women leave too, many of them carrying back the untouched laddoos, three in each hand.

What are Phogat’s odds?

Nisha, 25, a graduate, lives in Sindhvi Khera village with her brother and mother. From a Scheduled Caste, she does not work, but her brother does construction work, usually for 15 days a month, at Rs.500 per day.

All of them plan to vote for the BJP’s candidate.

In Gatauli village, one of Julana’s largest, with a population of 5,500, votes are split 50-50 between Jats and non-Jats.

Haryana has “36 biradaris”— 36 castes—and votes are cast on caste lines.

Jats, at 40 per cent, are dominant in Julana, followed by Scheduled Castes (20 per cent), OBC (17 per cent), and Brahmins who make up about 11 per cent of the population.

Traditionally, Brahmins, Punjabis, and OBCs vote for the BJP, while Jats and Scheduled Castes vote for the Congress. But this equation has changed somewhat with the BJP replacing its Punjabi Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar with Nayab Singh Saini, an OBC. Earlier this year, the BJP lost 5 of the 10 parliamentary seats it held to the Congress in the Lok Sabha election.

There is also anger at a party member’s casteist slur aimed at the Congress’ Sirsa MP and the party’s Dalit face in Haryana, Selja Kumari. Then there is factionalism in the BJP and Congress, and anger towards the regional Dushyant Chautala-led Jannayak Janta Party. Chautala, with his 10 MLAs, helped the BJP form a government in 2019, and spoke against the farmers’ protest and in favour of farm laws.

“This upset the JJP’s traditional voters a great deal. They feel cheated and at least 70-80 per cent of JJP’s vote will shift to the Congress this time,” a political consultant told Frontline.

In Gobindpura village, which is dominated by Dalits and OBCs, sarpanch Kamal Mathur says that the “BJP’s Bairagi will get about 40,000 votes or less. The Jats are determined to make Vinesh win. The Jat vote will not change. Maan samman ki baat hai [It is a matter of respect].”

‘Money, brotherhood, and alcohol’

The Congress is riding on anti-incumbency and has an edge in Julana, but the election campaign has been very low key, not just in Julana, but throughout Haryana.

“The BJP has realised that voters are not really interested in attending or listening to big speeches by Narendra Modi, and the Congress is just banking on anti-incumbency,” the political consultant said.

There have been very few big rallies by national leaders. Posters, buntings, and the noise and excitement of elections is also missing. It is as if voters have already decided, and that there is not much to say for political parties.

News of the few big rallies and statements by Modi, Rahul Gandhi, and Bhupinder Hooda are covered in the local editions of India’s top Hindi and Punjabi newspapers, as are stories of Kumari Selja being miffed, but there is hardly any coverage of other election campaigns, rallies, including of hot seats like Julana.

“Political parties are spending money on digital ads but not on print. That’s why the local papers news hi nahin chala rahe [That’s why the local papers are not running the news],” the political consultant said.

Three people, including a local reporter from one of the national dailies, told Frontline on the condition of anonymity that all campaign news is paid news in Haryana’s newspapers.

He spoke of “election-time deals” that are struck by the State’s top leadership or by individual candidates. “The packages start from Rs.5 to 10 lakh per candidate and the newspaper owners either send their people or come themselves to collect money and then they write about the candidates badha-chadha ke [in an exaggerated manner]. No party has struck a deal this time. The packages haven’t come, that’s why there is no coverage of the campaigns,” he said.

A YouTuber, whose channel has around 7,500 subscribers, follows Vinesh around, recording, conducting interviews, and then uploading the videos.

“What’s the point of striking these deals with newspapers and getting paid news? If we do the deal, then so will all others. So what’s the benefit?” a member of Vinesh’s team said.

But a Congress leader, unhappy with the way Vinesh’s campaign is being run, complains about “poor media management”.

“The candidate said no package and no sharab [booze] will be distributed. I salute her for that. But her mismanagement is costing her. Yahan Congress ka vote nahin hai [There is no Congress vote here]. And Vinesh and her team have no strategy,” he said.

A list of 4,000 Congress workers in Julana’s villages was handed to her team, he says, so that they could be informed about her programme, campaign. “But they lost the list,” he said.

“There have been instances when she’s reached a village, but there’s been no information on the ground. Messages to party workers should be going out. Calls should be made to voters. But none of this is happening,” he added.

Even her campaigning route has been badly planned so that she wastes a lot of time traveling, he said.

“The BJP has placed people inside the Congress camp and they have been trying their best to do saazish [conspiracy].”

“Any of the 86 applicants who did not get the Julana ticket”, or Hooda’s rivals within the Congress could be behind the attempts to sabotage. “It could even be Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh,” he said.

But her arrogance is the worst, he says and recalls how, when someone tried to introduce Vinesh to Dharmender Singh Dhull, saying that he was the party’s candidate in the last two Assembly elections, “she walked off saying, ‘It was the party’s decision’”.

“The BJP is very good at managing elections. Their organisation, down to booth level is excellent,” the political consultant said. While the BJP’s cadre is mostly inactive, the RSS’ cadre has been activated and is conducting what he calls a “silent campaign”, meeting and placating voters who are upset.

“She doesn’t have five people in each village for booth management. She hasn’t met the SP, the collector, or the tehsildar. It’s very important to meet them because they oversee counting. A warning was issued to her recently by the top leaders and her attitude has changed slightly now,” the upset Congress leader said..

In the Congress office in Julana, where there are no women, only men sitting around hookahs, there is talk of how a rival party is handing out chits to their workers and volunteers to claim their quota of booze bottles.

“All this money and booze business increases in the last two-three days before polling, when campaigning stops. Votes do shift with money, not so much with booze,” the consultant said.

“For BPL [below poverty line] families, workers, mazdoor, Rs.2,000 per voter was the going rate in the last election, and that is four days’ earning for them. Now the demand is for Rs.4,000-Rs 5,000 per voter.”

“She’s surrounded by chamchas who are telling her she is winning, she’s ahead, but there is a fight and in the last three-four days, elections palat jaate hain [get overturned],” the Congress leader said.

And fortunes are mostly made and changed with “paisa, bhai-chara, and sharab [money, brotherhood, and alcohol]”.

‘I am going mad’

“Main pagal ho gayi hoon [I am going mad],” says Vinesh when asked about her experience of campaigning.

“Politics destroys your ego. There are all types of people that you have to deal with. Some get upset. Personal ego khatam kar deta hai politics [Personal ego destroys politics]. You have to understand this and act accordingly,” she said.

There is some truth in the criticism about her attitude and gripes about how she is running her campaign, but there is also exaggeration, chauvinism, sexism, and irritation at the diminishing significance of veterans who feel sidelined.

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It is a story that plays out every time a woman from a non-political family becomes a candidate in a winnable constituency. It is an old song from an old playbook, of new entrants in hierarchical, male-dominated parties.

Vinesh Phogat conducts her campaigns like her six-minute wrestling bouts. She is direct, quick, super-focussed, and sharp. She answers questions, assures voters that she will be around to help them, poses for photographs, asks for votes, but does not plead. She does not waste time and she maintains her swag.

Vinesh is playing this political bout to win. “So many people are working on this election. I am fighting to win. Whatever the end result will be, I should have no regret that I didn’t try my best,” she says, and then adds that she is not scared of losing.

“What is the worst that can happen—that you lose? So what if you lose? So what? You won’t die,” she says, and then adds, philosophically: “Zindagi mein aage jaane ke liye ummeedon ka tootna bhi bahut zaroori hai [It is very important to break expectations to move forward in life].”

Suparna Sharma is a reporter, writer, editor based in Delhi. She writes on politics, crime, cinema, pop culture, and business.