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After 9 years, Karnal loses ‘CM city’ tag
It was days before the assembly polls in 2014, Khattar’s name first cropped up in the political circles of Karnal. Having been dubbed as a “parachute nominee”, his candidature was protested within the party, with posters coming up overnight calling him an “outsider”.
On October 26, 2014, first-time MLA Manohar Lal Khattar was administered oath as the 10th chief minister of Haryana. This was for the first time that a Punjabi-face from the community-dominated GT Road belt was chosen for the top post and Karnal became the new “CM city”.
A native of Nindana village in Rohtak, Khattar remained an active member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) before joining the BJP in 1994.
It was days before the assembly polls in 2014, his name first cropped up in the political circles of Karnal. Having been dubbed as a “parachute nominee”, his candidature was protested within the party, with posters coming up overnight calling him an “outsider”.
However, as the campaign escalated for the polls, his RSS colleagues would introduce him as the “next chief minister” and if not “then minister for sure” because of his close links with Prime Minister Narendra Modi since their pracharak days, a sangh leader from Haryana, said.
He won the seat by 63,773 votes and was made the chief minister. It was for the first time in the history of Haryana that a first-time MLA and a non-Jat was escalated to the top post.
Come 2019, Khattar told a gathering after a road show in Karnal just two days ahead of the polls to vote for him as the chief minister, a rare instance when he showed confidence in repeating his second term.
The confidence was also visible on January 28 this year when during a Jan Samwad here he said that he will come again in front of the public during the election campaign and appealed to the people to vote for him again, but what unfolded on Tuesday shocked many, even his close aides here.
For the last nine years and six months, Karnal remained the epicentre of major protests by worker and employee rights unions.
Sharing borders with Meerut district in Uttar Pradesh, incidents of heinous crime also rose, grabbing headlines due to the chief minister’s constituency.
Sanjay Bathla, Karnal representative of the outgoing CM, said that Karnal was fortunate enough to have received the tag of ‘CM city’ for over nine years that has given a facelift to the town in many ways.
“A major change that the residents can today observe is the road connectivity with other towns. Earlier, the focus was only on GT Road but in the last 10 years, several inner roads with Meerut, Kaithal, Yamunanagar and others are now four or six lanes. Karnal now has a hockey stadium, a cricket stadium, ring road, over 200 open-air gyms, beautified parks and an elevated flyover within the old city is coming soon,” Bathla said.
Meanwhile in Kurukshetra, BJP workers celebrated at his residence in sector 3 as local MP Nayab Saini was chosen as the next chief minister.
Sweets were also exchanged at Mirzapur Majra, Saini’s native village in Ambala’s Naraingarh, where his family resides. Security was increased at both the locations.
