Haryana assembly elections: Double whammy for BJP in Karnal, Congress opens account

By: Amit Kumar
KARNAL: Congress managed to make inroads into chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar’s stronghold after winning one out of the five assembly seats in Karnal district. On the other hand, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) failed to retain two seats in the district.
In the 2014 assembly elections, BJP had won all five seats in the district. Even Khattar’s victory margin from Karnal assembly constituency was reduced to 45,188 votes from 63,773 in 2014.Three candidates who had contested in 2014 against Khattar had joined the BJP.
It made Khattar claim that his victory margin would increase to over one lakh this time. However, the reduced margin raised a question over the CM’s popularity even in his home turf.
In Karnal, Khattar won by defeating his rival Tarlochan Singh of the Congress with a margin of 45,188 votes. Khattar polled 79,906 votes while Tarlochan got 34,718 votes. Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) candidate and dismissed Border Security Force (BSF) trooper Tej Bahadur Yadav managed to get only 3,192 votes.
Shamsher Singh Gogi of the Congress and BJP rebel Dharmpal Gonder won from Assandh and Nilokheri segments by defeating BJP’s sitting MLAs Bakhshish Singh Virk and Bhagwan Dass Karbir Panthi, respectively.
In Assandh, considered to be a close fight in almost every election, all eyes were on the result. Putting up a strong performance, Gogi managed to edge past Narendra Rana of BSP by a narrow margin of 1,703 votes. He polled 32,114 votes and Rana got 30,411 votes while BJP’s Virk was third with 28,436 votes.
In Nilokheri, BJP rebel Gonder defeated party candidate Kabir Panthi by a margin of 2,222 votes. Gonder polled 42,979 votes followed by Kabir Panthi with 40,757 votes while Congress’s Banta Ram got 19,736 votes.
In Indri, BJP nominee Ram Kumar Kashyap won by defeating independent candidate Rakesh Kamboj, a Congress rebel, with a margin of 7,431 votes. Ram bagged 54,221 votes while Kamboj secured 46,790 votes.
From the Gharaunda assembly constituency, BJP candidate and sitting MLA Harvinder Kalyan won comfortably with a margin of 17,402 votes defeating Congress candidate Anil Rana. Harvinder polled 67,209 votes while Rana got 49,807 votes.