Haryana: BJP's Babita Phogat's Dadri fight likely to go down to wire

The Haryana Assembly polls have seen the entry of popular wrestler and BJP candidate Babita Phogat contesting from Dadri against Congress candidate Nirpender Singh Sangwan and Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) candidate Satpal Sangwan. Seventeen candidates are in the contest for the Dadri assembly seat. The seat is currently held by Rajdeep Phogat, who was elected on an Indian National Lok Dal ticket but shifted to the breakaway JJP last year. Dadri had around 1.7 lakh voters.

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As per the Jan Ki Baat Opinion poll based on ground surveys ahead of the Haryana assembly elections, BJP's Babita Phogat has a slight edge over the independent candidate in the Dadri seat, though the battle is very difficult to call. Overall, across the state, however, things are projected to be a little clearer with the BJP predicted to increase its seats to the range of 58-70 whereas the JJP may win five to eight seats. Congress is likely to get 12-18 seats whereas INLD can fare only in one to no seats.

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Double Commonwealth Gold-winner Babita Phogat was already a household name before the movie 'Dangal', revolving around the struggle of her father and wrestling coach Mahavir Singh Phogat to train her and her sister Geeta, also became a hit. 

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The BJP's Sombhir had lost Dadri to Rajdeep who had won 43,400 votes in 2014. Sombhir now has fielded himself as an independent after being denied a ticket from the BJP. The BJP has two other sportspeople fielded in Haryana – wrestler Yogeshwar Dutt from Baroda and former hockey captain Sandeep Singh from Pehowa.

2014 Haryana Assembly elections

The previous assembly elections in the state had witnessed the BJP storming to power by unseating the Bhupinder Singh Hooda-led government by winning 47 of the 90 seats.