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Bypoll: Karnal a cakewalk for Saini
Saini polled 95,004 votes (62.4%), while Singh got 53,464 votes (35.13%). However, 1,113 voters chose NOTA in the byelections. Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) candidate Rajinder bagged 1,073 votes.
Returning officer for the Karnal bypoll and SDM Anubhav Mehta on Tuesday declared Haryana chief minister and BJP candidate Nayab Saini as victorious by a margin of 41,540 votes against his nearest rival from Congress, Tarlochan Singh.
Saini polled 95,004 votes (62.4%), while Singh got 53,464 votes (35.13%). However, 1,113 voters chose NOTA in the byelections. Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) candidate Rajinder bagged 1,073 votes.
Two Independents, Rajender Arya Dadupur, a farm activist, and Shamsher Singh Nain, a BJP leader, also got 214 and 144 votes, respectively, despite the fact that both had declared their support to Saini days ahead of the voting on May 25.
Dadupur had even joined the saffron party in the presence of former chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar and CM Saini.
The counting took place for 17 rounds and Saini was leading since the first round over Singh, records of the Election Commission of India (ECI) show.
A 57.9% voter turnout was registered for the Karnal assembly seat that fell vacant after Khattar’s resignation from the seat.
There are 2,62,821 registered voters in the assembly constituency, of which 1,52,161 cast their votes.
During the 2019 assembly elections, 52.37% voter turnout was recorded, when Khattar contested his second election as sitting chief minister.
It was Congress’ Tarlochan Singh, who was pitted against Khattar in 2019 as well. While Khattar had polled 79,906 votes (64.7%), Singh stood second with 34,718 votes (28.1%) out of total 1,23,452 votes (52.37%) polled in the election.
Speaking to reporters after the voting ended, Singh said that he managed to increase his votes by nearly 20,000 despite the fact that it was again a sitting chief minister contesting against him.
“A byelection always goes in favour of the sitting government and rival candidates lose their security deposits. But it was all the hard work of the party workers that I managed to gain,” he said.
After taking his winning certificate at the counting centre at DAV Senior Secondary School, CM Saini along with his wife reached the party’s election office at Aggarwal dharamshala.
He performed ‘aarti’ at an in-house temple and greeted the party workers, who had gathered in huge numbers after the victory.
Saini thanked the voters and said, “The trust they showed in me for the welfare policies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and (former chief minister) Khattar will continue, and the victory has further boosted my confidence for taking forward the development works.”
Meanwhile, reacting to the Congress’ victory in half of the seats in Haryana, CM Saini said, “The party had spread the propaganda that if the BJP wins, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will scrap the Constitution and other things. These are all lies.”
On the other hand, former chief minister and BJP’s Karnal Lok Sabha candidate Manohar Lal Khattar also thanked the voters, ECI, the administration and the voters for the smooth conduct of elections. He won by a margin of 2.32 lakh votes against Congress’ Divyanshu Budhiraja.
Speaking to the media after visiting his counting centre at SD Model Senior Secondary School in Karnal, he said that despite claims by both the parties, be it the BJP or the Congress, it is the public’s mandate that counts at the end that he accepts respectfully.
On the overall results of the state, Khattar said that it will be analysed.
He also addressed the party workers at BJP’s election office at Aggarwal dharamshala.
