Sports stars lose big this round with 3-1 scorecard

NEW DELHI: In the game of elections, sportspersons lost 3-1 on Thursday.


Wrestlers Yogeshwar Dutt and Babita Phogat were pinned on the mat in Haryana, and footballer Bhaichung

Bhutia

was outplayed in Sikkim. Hockey Olympian Sandeep Singh was the lone winner.

Dutt, Phogat and Singh were BJP candidates, contesting seats never won by the saffron party in Haryana. Only Singh, known for his deadly drag flicks in his prime, broke the hoodoo. He prevailed in Pehowa by over 4,000 votes.

Dutt, who claimed a rare bronze for India in the 2012 London Olympics, lost to Sri Krishan Hooda of Congress by more than 4,000 votes in Baroda. Phogat, who led briefly in the morning, finished third in Dadri. The winner, Sombir, is a BJP rebel who had contested as an independent.

Bhutia fared the worst of all. The former India captain, once famous for his bicycle kicks, finished a miserable fourth in the Gangtok byelection as the candidate of Hamro Sikkim, a party he co-founded. Bhutia had fought the 2014 Lok Sabha polls and 2016 Bengal state election on Trinamool tickets, and lost both.

Sports and politics have been cosy bedfellows right from the first LS polls in 1952. Hockey star Jaipal Singh, cricketer Fatesinghrao Gaekwad and shooter Karni Singh were all elected to Lok Sabha. In 2019, cricketer Gautam Gambhir, shooter Rajyavdardhan Rathore and footballer

Prasun Banerjee

earned a seat in the 17th Lok Sabha.

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