Vijender Singh’s one-two punch: Olympian boxer seen as close to Rahul Gandhi joins BJP

A couple of days ago, Vijender Singh, a sportsperson-turned-politician, shared a post by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi directly targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi. On Tuesday, Vijender, a Congress candidate in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, followed it up by reposting a video uploaded by Rahul that was highly critical of the Modi government.

On Wednesday, in a punch by India’s first Olympic medalist in boxing that the Congress perhaps didn’t see coming, Vijender joined the BJP.

The move, just days ahead of the first phase of the Lok Sabha elections, was also a surprise as Vijender has generally been critical of the Modi government on important issues, be it farmer protests or the wrestlers’ agitation.

The Haryana-based boxer also was seen as having a line open to Rahul, and was photographed with the Congress leader during his first Bharat Jodo Yatra.

In 2019, the Congress had fielded Vijender from South Delhi, against a career politician – the BJP’s Ramesh Bidhuri. The Aam Aadmi Party candidate from the seat was another big name, Raghav Chadha. Vijender lost badly, finishing behind the other two contestants and losing his deposit after securing only 13.56% of the total votes.

While it is not clear whether the BJP will field Vijender, or from where, some Congress leaders had been talking about him as a possible candidate from the Mathura Lok Sabha seat against the BJP’s Hema Malini.

Apart from dealing a blow to the Congress, the BJP will hope that the entry of Vijender, a known Jat face from Haryana, who had spoken up for the wrestlers, will help the party with the community in the state bound for elections later this year.

Before he ventured into politics, Vijender, who won a bronze medal at the Beijing Olympics, was largely