Comfortable win for Khattar in Haryana’s Karnal segment
The 70-year-old Bharatiya Janata Party leader won with a comfortable margin of 2.32 lakh against Divyanshu Budhiraja, the 31-year-old state youth Congress chief, who also fought his first electoral contest
Despite facing farmer’s protests, boycott by a section of gram panchayat and anti-incumbency as a two-time chief minister, Manohar Lal Khattar registered his first victory as a parliamentarian on Tuesday by winning all nine assembly segments of Karnal Lok Sabha constituency.
The 70-year-old Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader won with a comfortable margin of 2.32 lakh against Divyanshu Budhiraja, the 31-year-old state youth Congress chief, who also fought his first electoral contest.
The victory margin, however, dipped sharply from 2019, when his party’s Sanjay Bhatia won by a margin of 6.56 lakh votes against Congress’ Kuldeep Sharma, second highest in the country.
As per final figures, 7,37,282 votes were polled in favour of Khattar, followed by 5,04,437 for Budhiraja, while BSP’s Inder Singh also gained 32,410 votes to stand third. Nationalist Congress Party (Sharad Pawar) and Indian National Lok Dal’s (INLD) joint candidate Maratha Virender Verma ranked fourth with 28,984 votes and JJP’s Devender Kadian at fifth with 11,399 votes.
In assembly segments represented by Congress MLAs, the margin was low compared to those held by the BJP. For instance, in Assandh where Congress’ Shamsher Singh Gogi led the campaign in favour of Budhiraja, Khattar won by the least margin of 1,654 votes of all nine segments.
It was Assandh where he faced farmer’s ire for the first time during his road show and is dominated by Sikhs, Rajputs and schedule caste voters, political observers said.
Similarly, in Congress’ Israna and Samalkha of Panipat, the margin was 6,770 and 18,337 votes, respectively. Budhiraja was hopeful of significant gains in both segments but failed.
In Nilokheri, where Independent MLA Dharampal Gonder shifted loyalties from BJP to the Congress during the peak campaign, Khattar led with a margin of 10,885 votes, while it was the highest in Panipat City (58,832) where BJP’s Pramod Vij is the MLA.
In Karnal, which Khattar represented twice, the margin was a bit low at 34,624 votes, and in the BJP-led Gharounda and Indri, the difference with Congress remained at 32,138 and 21,915 votes, respectively.
On both the seats, sarpanch and ex-sarpanch had gathered to support Budhiraja, for whom several events were organised by them.
A day after his victory, Khattar chaired a meeting with local BJP leadership at the party’s office on Wednesday to discuss what went in his favour and what did not.
Speaking to HT about his victory despite the anti-incumbency and protests, Khattar said, “All are with us and we have registered our win.”
However, he refused to speak on other issues, due to his urgency for a party meeting in Chandigarh. “Will speak to the media after returning from Delhi by Friday,” he said.
The MP-elect entered politics just a decade back due to his proximity with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, after serving with the party’s parent organisation – Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS).
At his office, elated Yogender Rana, BJP’s district president, said as chief minister Khattar worked for all sections of the society and the results are before all. “Be it farmers, sarpanch or women, he ensured equal development for all. Not only this, he worked to develop every district of the state equally,” he added.
On being asked about the reduced margin, Rana believes that due to the heatwave and weekend, the voter turnout declined and so did the margin.