BJP leader Sonali Phogat dies of 'heart attack' in Goa

Deepender Deswal

Hisar, August 23

Mystery shrouded the sudden death of BJP leader and actor Sonali Phogat, 42, at a resort in Goa this morning.

Courted controversies

• She courted controversies in politics when she urged people to raise the slogan “Bharat Mata Ki Jai” and commented that those not raising the slogan had come from Pakistan
• She faced a major trouble when she publicly thrashed the secretary of a market committee Sultan Singh at the purchase centre in Balsamand village on June 5, 2020
• A video of the incident went viral on the social media in which she was hitting the MC Secretary with her slipper and also slapping him repeatedly
• The MC secretary alleged he was assaulted in an unprovoked way by Sonali, as he had not supported her during the Assembly poll
• She, too, had filed a counter-complaint against Sultan Singh, alleging attempted molestation etc.

Initial reports from Goa suggested that she had died of heart attack in the morning. Sonali had unsuccessfully contested the Adampur Assembly poll as BJP candidate opposite Kuldeep Bishnoi. However, after Bishnoi joined the BJP earlier this month and resigned from the Assembly, he had visited Sonali at her farmhouse and both had vowed to work for the Adampur Assembly segment in unison.

Family sources said Sonali’s private secretary Sudhir Sangwan, who accompanied her to Goa, called her family members at Buthan Kalan in Fatehabad district at about 8 am today to inform them about her death. Sonali’s brother, Watan Dhaka, and other family members left for Goa to take her body, which had been kept at a hospital.

She is survived by her 15-year-old daughter Yashodhara, who is a student at a private residential school in Hisar. Sonali’s husband Sanjay Phogat had died in 2016 at their farmhouse in Hisar district.

Sonali’s career graph as an actor, politician and as social media celebrity had risen almost simultaneously when she joined the BJP and actively started working for the party just before the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. She was the vice-president of the state women’s wing of the BJP and also was regional director of the Haryana Kala Parishad. She emerged as a star on the social media platform TikTok and is also popular on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. She had also acted in some TV serials and films. Her moment in politics came when she managed to get the BJP ticket, edging past several claimants in the 2019 Assembly poll from Adampur.