Tik Tok star Sonali, Bhajan Lal's son in eyeball-grabbing battle

Bir Babran, Haryana : It’s dark and there’s no electricity at the village school. Someone in the sparse crowd throws up a bright idea, “Switch on the headlights of the cars.” Darkness dispelled, rookie BJP candidate Sonali Phogat begins her speech with the slogan, “Bharat Mata Ki Jai.”


Last week, the chant tossed her into a controversy in Balsamand, the village she was born.

When some young men didn’t respond with enthusiasm, she asked them sarcastically, “Kya aap Pakistan se aaye ho?” Now she explains, “I was only encouraging them to say, Bharat Mata Ki Jai. I am 40. They were college kids, much younger to me… When they didn’t, I felt angry. It was natural. But I didn’t say anything to hurt anyone.”



Sonali’s been among the top eyeball-grabbing campaigns in the 2019 Haryana poll. And that’s primarily for two reasons. One, she is a TikTok star. In over 200 videos, Sonali has lipsynced Bollywood chartbusters like Kya dekhte ho surat tumhari (film: Qurbani), Yeh haseen waadiyan yeh khula aasman (film: Roja), Hum tere bin kabhi reh nahi paate (film: Sadak). Since she became the saffron party’s Adampur candidate in Hisar district, her following has swelled to 1.86 lakh. For the campaign, she has efficiently harnessed social media; many of her speeches are shown live on Facebook.

Two, Sonali is pitted against incumbent Congress MLA Kuldeep Bishnoi, the 51-year-old son of former Haryana Chief Minister Bhajan Lal. The seat has been a family pocketborough. BJP has never won Adampur.



It is a David versus Goliath scenario. In the previous assembly polls , Bishnoi earned 47% of the votes; BJP got less than 7 per cent. Bajrang Das Garg, chief spokesperson of Haryana Congress, sounds confident on phone. “Bishnoi will win again by huge margin,” he says.



But Phogat feels the voters are ready for change. “Has Kuldeep-ji solved your problems?” she asks the gathering, “While canvassing, he might be saying, I will attend to them when I become CM. But Manohar Lal ji (Khattar) will be the CM. And BJP will get more than 75 seats. Stamp your ballot on the Lotus. Make me your MLA. I will work for you,” she says. Haryana assembly has 90 seats.

Sonali, 40, has acted in television serials, anchored shows. “Acting has been my hobby. Whenever I get good work, I do it,” she says. She comes from a family of farmers. Married after high school, her husband died reportedly in suspicious circumstances in Dec 2016. She has a young daughter.


Sonali joined BJP 12 years ago and was recently made vice-president of the state Mahila Morcha. “Since my childhood, I wanted to do something for the country. But I never found a way to do it. My in-laws’ family was associated with INLD. Relatives from my mother’s side were linked with Congress. I was not interested in politics. But things changed after I met Sumitra Mahajan. She told me about BJP, how the party functions. I was inspired by rashtriya bhavna (nationalist feeling) and the way she did her work. Besides, BJP also respects women,” she told TOI.

What about TikTok videos? “I enjoy doing them and I will keep making them,” she says.