Boxer Vijender Singh on Wednesday (3rd April) joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at its headquarters ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. Singh had joined the Congress party ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections and had contested the polls. He joined the BJP today in the presence of several senior BJP leaders in Delhi.
#WATCH | Boxer & Congress leader Vijender Singh joins BJP at the party headquarters in Delhi#LokSabhaElections2024 pic.twitter.com/5fqOt9KIcp
— ANI (@ANI) April 3, 2024
“I have joined the party to be a part of development. Earlier I was in Congress. But now I want development to happen in the nation and that is possible only under the rule of the BJP. I’ll say what is wrong is wrong. Congress has been lacking efforts and now that I am in BJP, I don’t want to comment on anything about Congress,” Singh said after joining the party.
#WATCH | After joining BJP, Boxer Vijender Singh says, "I have joined BJP today for the development of the country and to serve the people…"#LokSabhaElections2024 https://t.co/OCa2lP2gkc pic.twitter.com/vdgCjdGWrz
— ANI (@ANI) April 3, 2024
Earlier on 30th March, Singh had made a one-line note on X, formerly known as Twitter, sparking a flurry of speculation ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. “Wherever the public wants, I am ready,” he tweeted on 30th March.
His name has been circulating for the past few days as the Congress party’s nominee from Mathura, where actor and incumbent MP Hema Malini is contesting again. Singh is from the Jat community, which has political power in a large number of seats in Haryana, his home state, as well as western Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan.
Vijender Singh joined the Congress in the year 2019 and contested unsuccessfully in the South Delhi constituency, where BJP’s Ramesh Bidhuri defeated AAP’s Raghav Chadha and Congress’ Vijender Singh to secure his seat.
Notably, Singh was present at the wrestlers’ protest against Brij Bhushan Singh, the former president of the Wrestling Federation of India. The Olympic medal-winning boxer also participated in Rahul Gandhi’s recent Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra. Vijender Singh published another mysterious post in December 2023 that was seen as his departure to politics, writing ‘Rajneeti ko ram-ram bhai’.
In 2008, Singh became the first Indian boxer to win an Olympic medal. He earned bronze medals in both the 2009 World Championship and the 2010 Commonwealth Games. He received the Padma Shri Award in 2010 for his contributions to Indian sports. In 2012, his name surfaced in a drug scandal, however, he was later acquitted.
