Olympics participant Krishna Poonia is the latest candidate fielded by Congress to contest from Jaipur Rural constituency for the Lok Sabha elections 2019. Her name was part of the list of nine candidates released by the Congress on Tuesday, April 2.
Poonia, a three-time Olympics discus thrower, also won a gold medal in the 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games.
Along with her sports career, Poonia is also the MLA from Sadalpur constituency in Rajasthan. She is now set to contest against Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Rajyavardhan Rathore, who is also an Olympic gold medallist and Jaipur Rural's MP.
Poonia, who is originally from Hissar, came into the political limelight in December 2018 after she won from the Sadulpur constituency, beating a lot of political veterans, including MLA Manoj Kumar Nyangali from BSP and Ram Singh Kaswan the Lok Sabha MP from Churu, and a member of BJP.
"For the last five years, I have been working non-stop for twelve hours a day, meeting people and attending to the problems of the people. This journey has been tougher than preparing for the Olympics,'' Poonia was quoted as saying by Firstpost.
She had added that it was a very difficult election and her aim, after winning, was to develop sporting facilities in her constituency will help aspiring sportspeople.
Virender, Poonia's coach and subsequently, her political campaign manager told Firstpost, "The transformation in her was remarkable. For someone who had no clue about politics even a few years back, she was surprisingly a big crowd puller in all her public gatherings. She struck a chord with her speeches and she was an inspirational figure for the rural women who were inspired by her stories.''
