Setback to Congress: Boxer Vijender Singh joins BJP ahead of LS polls

In a huge blow to the Congress, Vijender Singh, India's first Olympic medallist in boxing, joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday. Singh had fought the 2019 Lok Sabha election from the South Delhi constituency as a Congress candidate.

"I have joined BJP today for the development of the country and to serve the people," he said while speaking to news agency ANI. 

Vijendra's name was doing the rounds for the last few days as the party's nominee from Mathura, from where actor and incumbent MP Hema Malini is contesting again. Singh had lost the last election from South Delhi to BJP's Ramesh Bidhuri.

Singh comes from the Jat community, which has political influence in a large number of seats in Haryana, the state he comes from, western Uttar Pradesh, and Rajasthan. 

The development comes as a surprise as till Tuesday, he was retweeting Rahul Gandhi's social media posts, which were critical to the central government. 

On Sunday, Vijender Singh retweeted Gandhi's post, where the former Congress chief said: "Narendra Modi wants to change the Constitution by winning elections through 'match-fixing'." 

"By buying players, scaring the captain, putting pressure on the umpire, and raising slogans of crossing 400 on the basis of EVM. Whereas in reality, even after putting everything together, he is not in a position to cross 180. This election is not just an election to form a government, it is an election to save the country, an election to protect the Constitution," Gandhi wrote in that tweet.