Sportspersons in politics: India
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Sportspersons in politics
1947-2014/ The winners and losers
Avijit Ghosh, April 2, 2019: The Times of India
Often sports and politics make uneasy bedfellows. In India that doesn’t hold true. Sportspersons across disciplines have taken gleefully to politics. Former India cricketer Gautam Gambhir (BJP), ex-Mohun Bagan and East Bengal goalie Kalyan Choubey (BJP) and Olympian, discus thrower Krishna Poonia (Congress) being the latest. As in sports, sometimes they have triumphed, on other occasions been beaten.
THE WINNERS
1. Karni Singh | Shooting | Won silver in 1974 Tehran Asian Games in trap event | Constituency: Bikaner | Party/Terms: Independent 1952, 1957, 1962, 1967, 1971
2. Fatehsinghrao Gaekwad | Cricket | Scored 99 in a Ranji game in 1947-48 | Constituency: Baroda (now Vadodara) | Party/Terms: Congress 1952, 1962, 1971, 1977
3. Aslam Sher Khan | Hockey | Member of the 1975 World Cup winning team | Constituency: Betul | Party/Terms: Congress 1984, 1991
Poll Trivia
In 1971, just-sacked India’s cricket captain MAK Pataudi contested for the Gurgaon Lok Sabha seat. His party: VHP. Not Vishwa Hindu Parishad but Vishal Haryana Party. Pataudi fared miserably. Twenty years later, the retired cricketer contested again. This time from Bhopal on a Congress ticket. He lost again.
1. Chetan Chauhan | Cricket | Gavaskar’s reliable opening Test partner | Constituency: Amroha | Party/Terms: BJP 1991, 1998
2. Ranjib Biswal | Cricket | Led India in U-19 World Cup | Constituency: Jagatsinghpur | Party/Terms: Congress 1996, 1998
3. Mohd Azharuddin | Cricket | Led India in 3 ODI World Cups | Constituency: Moradabad | Party/Term: Congress 2009
4. Kirti Azad | Cricket | Part of Kapil Dev’s 1983 World Cup winning Devils| Constituency: Darbhanga | Party/Terms: BJP 1999, 2009 & 2014. Currently in Congress
5. Navjot Singh Sidhu | Cricket | Excelled in 1987 ODI World Cup | Constituency: Amritsar | Party/ Terms: BJP 2004, 2009. Currently in Congress
6. Prasun Banerjee | Football | The reliable defender was included in All Asia All-Star XI | Constituency: Howrah | Party/Terms: Trinamool by-poll 2013, 2014
7. Jyotirmoyee Sikdar | Athletics | 800m and 1500m gold medals in 1998 Bangkok Asian Games | Constituency: Krishnanagar | Party/Term: CPM 2004
Poll Trivia
Pre-independence India witnessed an intriguing poll battle. Palwankar Baloo, the classy spinner who was a Dalit by caste, fought against BR Ambedkar in 1937 Bombay Municipal elections. Ambedkar represented Scheduled Caste Federation. Baloo was a Congress candidate. To the astonishment of all, it turned out to be a needle contest. Final score: Ambedkar: 13,245. Baloo: 11,225
1. Rajyavardhan Rathore | Shooting | Olympic silver 2004 Athens (Double trap) | Constituency: Jaipur (rural) | Party/Term: BJP 2014
2. Ranee Narah | Cricket | Assam women's team captain | Constituency: Lakhimpur | Party/Terms: Congress 1998, 1999 & 2009
THE LOSERS
Several other sportsmen such as MAK Pataudi, Manoj Prabhakar, Chetan Sharma, Mohd Kaif, Nafisa Ali, Dilip Tirkey, Bhaichung Bhutia have contested Lok Sabha polls without success.
2019
From: May 24, 2019: The Times of India
See graphic :
The performance of sportspersons in the Lok Sabha elections of 2019
Political affiliations
From: August 13, 2019: The Times of India
See graphic:
2019: The Political affiliations of some Sportspersons.
2019: Haryana assembly elections
Avijit Ghosh, Oct 16, 2019: The Times of India
At the chowpal, the all-male audience is getting impatient. Suddenly the drums come alive. Aging men with craggy faces holding marigold garlands get up from the charpoys. Kids with BJP stickers — Phir ek baar, imaandar sarkar — pasted on their shabby T-shirts, rush towards the cavalcade. As Yogeshwar Dutt steps out of the imposing SUV, cries of “Hindustan ki shaan” and “Bharat ka sher”, fill the air.
The slogans, for once, sound genuine. Not many Indian sportspersons have grabbed two gold medals in Commonwealth Games, a gold in Asian Games and scalped a priceless Olympic bronze. But wrestler Dutt has since moved to the muddier and trickier pit of politics. And the challenge before him is daunting.
Dutt is BJP’s candidate for Baroda, an assembly seat in Sonepat district of Haryana that the saffron party has never won. He is taking on incumbent Sri Krishan Hooda of Congress. In the 2014 assembly polls, BJP won 47 out of 90 seats and took 33% of votes in Haryana. In Baroda, only 7% voted for BJP.
Haryana is India’s most bountiful state in Olympic sports. In the land of Dutt, Sakshi Malik and the Phogat sisters, who inspired Aamir Khan’s blockbuster sports drama Dangal, wrestlers (and boxers like Vijender Singh) are stars and role models.
For the October 21 polls, BJP has gambled on sportspersons for three seats that have always eluded the party. Grappler Babita Phogat, a two-time Commonwealth Games gold medallist, is contesting from Dadri, which BJP narrowly lost in the 2014 assembly polls. Her opponents include Congress’s Maj (retd) Nripendra S Sangwan. Hockey Olympian Sandeep Singh completes the BJP’s trio of sportspersons. The master drag-flicker from Kurukshetra district is contesting from Pehowa.
The trio enjoy the halo of super achievers with a clean image. But they are also political greenhorns. In Ranila village, Phogat addresses a small audience. Her pitch is confident and strident as she praises PM Narendra Modi for dumping Article 370. The audience corrects her when she says that no PM had visited Charkhi-Dadri before (Indira Gandhi did).
In another village, she chats with a group of elderly women, many in veil, who have come to meet her. Haryana women continue to excel in international sports; teenager Manju Rani from Rohtak, who grabbed a silver in World Boxing Championships last week, being the latest. But the northern state remains a social paradox. Dadri has an appalling sex ratio, 881 women for every 1,000 men.
But Phogat does see a change in people’s thinking. “Modiji’s slogan for our state, ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’, sent an important message. I can see the results. While campaigning, I saw a village where all nameplates were of women,” she tells TOI. On Tuesday, Modi campaigned in Dadri.
In the 1980s or earlier, sportspersons often opted for Congress. In recent decades, BJP has been the preferred option for many athletes. Why? Phogat confesses to being a Modi fan since his Gujarat CM days. “I wanted to join a nationalist party. BJP always puts nation first,” she says.
Dutt begins his speech with a cry of ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’ repeated thrice. The audience responds effusively. His village, Bhainswal, is just a few kilometres away. The wrestler talks about Modi wanting to make India the world’s most powerful country. “BJP rashtravadi party hai jo desh-hith mein kaam karti hai. The surgical strike, abrogation of Article 370; Modiji is not scared to take tough decisions,” he later tells TOI.
The wrestlers are focusing on Modi’s muscular politics as the key poll plank. The problems of Baroda though are more local. And Dutt is aware of it. Shortage of potable water, says Dalit farm labour Phool Singh from Sikanderpur Majra village, has been a major problem for decades. “No MLA ever paid any attention to this seat,” he says. In Dadri, a couple of young men talk about unemployment.
The rookies work hard on the campaign trail. It helps that wrestling has conditioned them to a physically daunting routine. “Both wrestling and politics require hard work. Only then people bless you,” says Phogat. Dutt says, “Here you must win the people’s trust. And fulfil promises.”
Phogat wants to work for women’s safety, draw more people into Modi’s Fit India drive. “I also want to work for more sports academies, help sportspersons receive insurance for injuries,” she says.
Has she spoken to actor Aamir Khan since filing her nomination? “Unhone kaha woh politics nahi karte. But he said, my best wishes are with you,” she said.
1952-2014
From: March 31, 2019: The Times of India
See graphic:
Indian sportspersons in politics: 1952-2014
2019
October by-elections: Sports stars lose 1-3
Avijit Ghosh, Oct 25, 2019: The Times of India
In the game of elections, sportspersons lost 3-1.
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.
See also
Film artistes in politics: India
Sportspersons in politics: India
