Politics different from sports; result in people's hands, not ours: Krishna Poonia

Krishna Poonia, who is in a direct contest with fellow Olympian Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore in this Lok Sabha seat, says politics is different from sports and results are always in people's hands.

For the 2010 Commonwealth Games discus throw gold medallist, who is the Congress nominee from Jaipur Rural segment, it has been a gruelling transition - from fixed hours of training in the sports field to a 24x7 job of politics.

For her, this transformation is nothing but stark, from basking in the glory of winning medals for the country to shouldering the responsibility of being a people's representative.

Poonia is the sitting MLA from Sardulpur, having won the seat in the 2018 assembly polls. She is now trying her luck against sitting BJP MP and Union minister Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore. Voting in this seat will be held on May 6.

"Politics is a different battlefield than sports. In sports, the result is in your own hands. You can train yourself and assess your strengths. In politics, that is not the case because the results are in people's hands and everything is about emotions," she tells PTI in an interview.

"In sports, I got a high whenever I won a medal and laurels for the country. Now, it is a different feeling. One of shouldering onerous responsibility of being a politician and of caring about people's emotions and aspirations," said 42-year-old Poonia.

She has an uphill task ahead of her as Jaipur Rural segment abounds in army recruits, making the BJP's nationalism narrative dominant here. The ace discus thrower is, however, determined to pull the narrative back to development issues as she accuses the BJP of politicising the army to "hide its failures".

Asked how she is countering the nationalism debate post-Pulwama terror attack, Poonia says, "I am going to the people with Congress ideology and Nyay scheme. We all respect our army. There were also surgical strikes during Congress rule. But the BJP is raising the bogey of nationalism to deflect attention from its failures. No one is telling us how so much RDX reached Pulwama. Why is the BJP not holding a probe into this?"