Haryana Assembly Election 2019: Three-time Congress MLA Kuldeep Bishnoi said that BJP's Sonali Phogat is welcome, we will treat her with halwa puri, but she should not expect votes in Adampur.
As a teenager, she worked in the fields, even driving her father's tractor. She went on to become an actor, and more recently a Tik Tok sensation.
But now, the saree-wearing 40-year-old is playing another role - campaigning door-to-door to dent the citadel of former Haryana chief minister Bhajan Lal.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party has fielded Sonali Phogat against three-time Congress MLA Kuldeep Bishnoi, younger son of late Bhajan Lal, from the Adampur assembly constituency.
Bhajan Lal represented the seat eight times in the assembly.
#TikTok popular face Sonali Phogat is BJP’s candidate from Adampur assembly constituency in Haryana. This show how seriously BJP is taking our democracy and elections pic.twitter.com/r08k8ZTvz4
— Assam Congress (@INCAssam) October 3, 2019
While 15 candidates are contesting from this Jat-dominated constituency that has a voter strength of over 1.60 lakh, the main contest is seen between Ms Phogat and 51-year-old Mr Bishnoi.
Ms Phogat, shot to fame via video-sharing app Tik Tok, is campaigning from village to village in rural areas.
"I do not treat it as a challenge," she tells reporters.
Tik-tok star #SonaliPhogat has been given MLA ticket from Haryana Adampur seat by BJP.
— Bhrustrated (@AnupamUncl) October 4, 2019
Those days are gone, when you had to do social welfare work to become a politician. 😊😍 pic.twitter.com/jPiYdXKE6E
"When a person sets out to do good, lakhs and crores join him along the way and Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the best example of this," says Ms Phogat.
Attacking Mr Bishnoi, she claimed that he inherited a legacy, but failed to live up to expectations of the people of Adampur.
"You just can't sit on your family legacy, you have to deliver on the ground. People here are wise, they know where he lived, he was never seen in his constituency," she said.
Ms Phogat has been an actor for past 20 years, but now she is a full-time politician.
She was born in a farmer family at Bhutan Kalan in Fatehabad district.
"My father is an agriculturist. I have also worked in fields whenever my father used to be away for some work. I have driven a tractor too," she says.
The Tik Tok star who regularly posts her lip-syncing Bollywood songs on the video-sharing app, said "it also helps to beat work-related and other stress".
"Sometimes women are told that they should not do this or that, but my answer is anything that is done with dignity and within limits, no one should have a problem," she said.
Ms Phogat, who was party's Mahila Morcha state vice-president, said the BJP is a "ray of hope" for women aspiring to join politics.
"When they join, they are given responsibilities and you will find them on different positions. Sumitra Mahajan ji, late Sushma Swaraj ji, Nirmala Sitharaman and Smriti Irani are only a few examples," she added.
Praising the BJP governments at the Centre and in the state, she said both dispensations have worked for all-round development and brought about a change in the system, "where corruption and favouritism ruled roost earlier".
On her entry into politics, she said, "In 2013, I had a chance to meet Sumitra Mahajan ji through a friend who was known to the family. Inspired by her, I decided to work actively for the party though I have been associated with the party for the last 12 years".
Mr Bishnoi, who has also been a two-time MP, said that people of Adampur know who stood solidly behind them all these years.
"She (Phogat) is welcome, we will treat her with halwa puri, but she should not expect votes here," he told the media on sidelines of his poll campaign.
Attacking the BJP government, Mr Bishnoi said, "discrimination and bias in development is evident here".
"Adampur constituency is like a family to us and we have nurtured it over the years. But the present government is big failure, they have discriminated against Adampur. No new school or college was set up here," he said.
Mr Bishnoi, whose son Bhavya lost this year's election from the Hisar Lok Sabha seat to BJP's Brijendra Singh, feels issues are different in the general and the assembly polls.
Mr Bishnoi exuded confidence that voters will choose the Congress this time.
"The Congress will form the next government, you will see," he said.
