Karnal: At 2.40 pm Wednesday, the scene was set at Karnal district Ballah village’s grain market where a woman executive magistrate briskly exited her vehicle and headed towards a pandal. The venue was prepped for an election rally where Manohar Lal Khattar, former chief minister of Haryana and the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) nominee for the Karnal Lok Sabha constituency, was scheduled to speak.
As she approached the VVIP dais, she conversed with several police officers who quickly made their way to the entrance, adjusting their caps as they went. As the buzz about Khattar’s arrival grew, party workers distributed marigold garlands and petals to those gathered — signalling the anticipation of his entrance.
The wait intensified, all eyes fixed on the main gate. At approximately 3.10 pm, a procession of vehicles signalled Khattar’s approach, heading towards the pandal.
Posters at the rally featured Sumit Narwal, a cricketer and the event’s organiser, known for his tenure with the Haryana (2001-2004) and Delhi (2007-2017) teams in domestic cricket, as well as the Rajasthan Royals (2009-10) and Kolkata Knight Riders (2013).
A native of Chirao village of Assandh assembly segment of the Karnal Lok Sabha seat, Narwal is hopeful for the BJP ticket from Assandh — a seat represented in the assembly by Congress’ Shamsher Singh Gogi.
Upon Khattar’s arrival, he was greeted with a floral tribute and garlanded by party leaders. Following the preliminary speeches, the crowd was told that Khattar, “sabse imaandaar neta (Haryana’s most honest leader)” will now impart his “asheesh vachan (words of blessings)”
Khattar began by underscoring the Lok Sabha election’s significance, asserting the BJP’s sole intent to serve the nation, in contrast to the Opposition’s alleged aim to unseat Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “Narendra Modi has done so much work in the past 10 years that the Opposition can’t even imagine doing in their dream,” he said.
Addressing the crowd, the former CM said the BJP had finalised all its candidates in Haryana by 28-29 March but the Congress struggled to find people to contest against them. He went on to criticise the Congress for internal discord and elitism while praising BJP initiatives like Ayushman Bharat, free ration schemes and the construction of the Ram temple at Ayodhya.
Shifting focus to Haryana, Khattar said that the “Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan” slogan was given by former PM Lal Bahadur Shastri, but in Haryana, he gave a new slogan — “Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan and Jai Pehalwan” — adding wrestlers to it — acknowledging Haryana’s contribution to sports. He then also praised Narwal for earning a name for himself and the state.
“Ever since I became the CM in 2014, I tried to change the way politics was practised in the state. From day one, I gave the slogan of Haryana Ek, Haryanvi Ek (all Haryanvis are equal in Haryana) and the government never discriminated against anyone based on caste or creed,” he told the crowd.
Khattar went on to add: “Earlier if anyone needed a government job, the family had to sell acres of agricultural land to pay a bribe. Now, under Bina Parchi Ya Kharchi Ki Naukri (merit-based jobs) people are getting government jobs purely on merit.”
However, despite Khattar’s assertive speech, the mood and reactions in the crowd were mixed. Ved Parkash, a commission agent in the Ballah grain market, especially was not convinced. “Inn BJP walo se naare chahe kitne banwa lo yeh mahir hain issme (BJP people are experts in coining slogans),” he told ThePrint.
“When he says that he improvised on Lal Bahadur Shastri’s slogan by adding Jai Pehalwan to Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan, he conveniently forgets how our women pehalwans (wrestlers) were beaten up by the BJP’s police. Our women wrestlers had to sacrifice their careers, but this didn’t move the BJP leaders,” he added.
But unlike Prakash, Seth Pal Chauhan, an OBC from Patti Kalyana of Samalkha assembly segment of Karnal, lauded the merit-based job allocations under Khattar’s rule, a sentiment echoed by Subhash Chander, a Jat farmer from Jabhala village of Assandh.
Speaking to ThePrint, Chauhan aid that two youths from his village got jobs as sub-inspectors in the Haryana Police, completed their training and began working three months ago. Moreover, nearly 50 youths in his village got Group D jobs (peon, gardener and other class 4 posts etc) — all of which, he asserted, were granted “strictly on merit”.
“During previous governments, jobs of this nature were not possible without paying a Rs 50-lakh bribe. Under the earlier practice, the government in power would distribute four to five positions to each legislator, depending on the total number of vacancies, to please them. During Khattar’s 9 1/2 years in power, jobs were given strictly on merit,” said Chauhan.
Meanwhile, while Chander, like Chauhan, acknowledged that youths in his village also got jobs on merit, he added this was just one aspect of Khattar’s administration. “When it comes to voting, people look at the overall performance of a leader.”
“They (PM Modi and Khattar) are like our fathers. They made commitments before the 2014 elections and then backed out (talking about the implementation of the Swaminathan report and MSP as a guarantee). When we want to move to Delhi to remind them of their commitment, they don’t allow us to cross Haryana’s borders. They ask their police to use bullets and teargas shells against us and kill our children. What kind of rule is this?” he asked.
According to Kuldeep Singh, a flour mill owner from Ballah, the BJP’s claims of providing jobs on merit would benefit people only when the government announced jobs.
“Unemployment is rampant in Haryana. During Khattar’s 10 years in power, a whole generation crossed the eligibility age. Youths are not getting brides because of lack of employment. The government advertises a few jobs close to the elections to claim accolades but a large number of vacancies are not being filled,” he said.
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The Karnal contest
In Karnal, Khattar is pitted against former Haryana National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) president Divyanshu Budhiraja of the Congress, Maratha Virender Verma — the Haryana president of the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharad Pawar), who has the support of the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) — Devender Kadiyan of the Jannayak Janta Party (JJP), and 15 others.
The main contest in Karnal, however, is between Khattar and Budhiraja.
Speaking to ThePrint, Budhiraja termed the claims of “Bina Parchi, Bina Kharchi Ki Sarkar (incorruptible government)” a farce and added that he was ready to have a debate with Khattar over this issue on any platform.
“This is my first electoral battle with Khattar. However, I have been fighting a political battle with him for the past eight years now. For the first time in history, Rs 3 crore was recovered by police from the office of the Haryana Public Service Commission from an officer during Khattar’s regime. Question papers have been leaked on at least 27 occasions. Where does the question of Bina Kharchi Bina Parchi remain then?” Budhiraja asked.
According to him, BJP leaders are very good at branding and the “Haryana Ek, Haryanvi Ek” and “Bina Kharchi, Bina Parchi Ki Sarkar (incorruptible government)” slogans are nothing but an attempt at branding by Khattar.
Budhiraja claimed that even people in the Karnal seat, which Khattar represented from 2014 till March 2024 as an MLA, tell him that he didn’t do anything for them despite being the CM for nearly 10 years.
“This has no more remained a contest between Khattar and Budhiraja or between the BJP and the Congress. It is becoming people’s election against Khattar,” Budhiraja asserted.
But for Anil Kumar Tyagi, who was sitting in the BJP’s election office at Samalkha, the best aspect of Khattar’s term as CM was that he didn’t give any preferential treatment to anyone and treated every Haryanvi equally.
“He (Khattar) didn’t allow even his brothers and their family members to enter the CM House in Chandigarh. Whether this stance of impartiality, devoid of preferential treatment for his Karnal constituents, is judged as right or wrong, remains a personal verdict. It goes to Khattar’s credit that he did Vyavastha Parivartan (change of system) in Haryana by changing the way governments were run in the state,” Tyagi asserted.
Other issues at play
The BJP, riding on the Modi wave, won the Karnal Lok Sabha seat in the 2014 and 2019 elections. Before this, the party’s only victory in the seat was in 1999 when I.D. Swami secured a win over Bhajan Lal of the Congress with a margin of 1.48 lakh votes.
Despite efforts by the late senior BJP leader Sushma Swaraj in the 1980, 1984, and 1989 elections, she was consistently defeated by Congress’ Chiranji Lal Sharma.
In the 2019 elections, Sanjay Bhatia, an aide of Khattar, clinched the Karnal seat with a remarkable 6.56-lakh vote margin — ranking as the second-largest in India following the Navsari Lok Sabha seat in Gujarat where the BJP candidate C.R. Patil won by 6.89 lakh votes.
Despite these impressive results, Bhatia has now replaced by Khattar and has been notably absent from Karnal’s current electoral scene, having been reassigned to the responsibilities of sah prabhari in Uttar Pradesh.
According to a BJP source, the party has moved him (Bhatia) out of Karnal to contain some of the anti-incumbency.
However, in this election, local concerns are overshadowing the broader national issues, leading to a challenging situation for the BJP as it confronts anti-incumbency sentiments, despite touting a record of effective governance throughout Khattar’s tenure of over nine years.
Mahinder Bhutani, vice-president of Sector 12 Residents’ Welfare Association, revealed that when Panipat BJP MLA Pramod Vij visited Swami Dayanand Park Tuesday to seek votes for the BJP, residents expressed their frustrations, highlighting the deteriorating condition of Panipat’s infrastructure and public services.
“The sewerage system in Panipat is in bad shape. The stormwater channel is in a state. A little rain, and the city roads are flooded. Once fused, the streetlight bulbs are not replaced. Moreover, the Property Identity System initiated by the government has become a big headache,” Bhutani told ThePrint.
Speaking to ThePrint, Vij also admitted that people did narrate their problems during his visit, “but it’s normal for the residents to share their issues with their MLAs”. “They are like my family members. Problems never end even in families.,” Vij said.
However, despite the concerns, Virender Soni, a resident who was present during Vij’s visit, said he didn’t see a better alternative to Khattar.
The BJP faced further challenges when Rohita Rewri, the party’s MLA from Panipat, defected to the Congress on 14 May, accusing Khattar of arrogance. Her departure is significant given her influence within the “Hyderabadi community” in Panipat. These families migrated to Panipat from the Hyderabad village of Mianwali of Pakistan’s Punjab during the Partition in 1947.
When ThePrint sought Khattar’s reaction to Rewri’s comments, he said, “She was elected once in 2014. No one knows her now.”
Amid these concerns, the party also faced challenges from the Sarpanch Association. Sarpanchs have been protesting against the BJP government in Haryana over the alleged curtailment of their powers and the introduction of e-tendering.
Only last week, the Sarpanch Association organised a meeting in Karnal and decided to oppose the BJP, with 520 of the 573 sarpanchs of Karnal participating, said Isham Singh, vice-president of the Haryana Sarpanch Association
Days before this, 20 out of 25 members of the Karnal Zila Parishad also announced their decision to oppose Khattar in Karnal.
But despite the challenges, party leaders like Manjeet Singh Dikadla, the BJP’s Samalkha Mandal chairman, are confident of the BJP’s prospects in the elections.
Talking about the last week’s sarpanch meeting, Dikadla said that the claims made by the association were misleading and nobody knows how many of those who attended their meeting were actually sarpanchs.
“Manohar Lal Khattar has worked honestly and has without favour to anyone. He has worked for all sections of society and people of all castes — whether Jats, Brahmins, Gujjars, Yadavs or his own Punjabi community. All have benefited from the policies of his government equally,” he said.
“People of Haryana, Karnal included, understand it well and have immense respect for Khattar and they will vote for him to send him to Parliament,” Dikadla asserted.
(Edited by Richa Mishra)