BJP’s vote share in Karnal LS seat rises by 20%

Parveen Arora

The historic victory of Sanjay Bhatia by a margin of 656,142 votes, second highest in the country, has enabled the BJP to improve its vote share in the prestigious Karnal parliamentary constituency. Its vote percentage increased by over 20 per cent in the recent Lok Sabha elections compared to the 2014 elections, while the Congress had almost the same vote percentage as it polled last time. Other political parties had a poor show in the Lok Sabha elections, as they witnessed a fall in their vote share.

In the 2014 elections, BJP candidate Ashwini Chopra had received 49.8 per cent votes while Congress candidate Arvind Sharma had got 19.7 per cent votes, and INLD candidate Jaswinder Singh Sandhu had received 15.7 per cent votes. BSP candidate Virender Maratha had got 8.6 per cent votes, while AAP candidate Paramjeet Singh had received 2.7 per cent votes and the NOTA share was 0.2 per cent. 

In the recent elections, BJP candidate Sanjay Bhatia received 911,594 votes (70.1 per cent of the total votes polled), while Congress candidate Kuldeep Sharma got 255,452 votes (19.7 per cent). With 67,183 votes (5.17 per cent), BSP-LSP alliance candidate Pankaj Chaudhary stood third, while AAP-JJP alliance candidate Krishan Aggarwal with 22,084 votes (1.7 per cent) came fourth.

The INLD failed to attract voters and its candidate Dharamvir Padha received only 15,797 votes (1.21 per cent of the votes polled). The NOTA share was 0.42 per cent. All other candidates except Bhatia and Kuldeep lost their security deposits, as they could not receive 1/6th of the total votes polled. Moreover, NOTA with 5,439 votes surpassed the vote share of 10 candidates.

Bhatia, who hails from Panipat city, secured more votes than Kuldeep in all nine Assembly segments of the Karnal constituency. He got the maximum lead of 92,338 votes in the Panipat (Rural) seat, followed by a lead of 87,375 votes in Panipat city. In Karnal district, Bhatia secured the maximum lead of 83,116 votes in Gharaunda. His lead over Kuldeep in the Karnal seat was 79,796 votes, Indri 70,458, Samalkha 69,408, Nilokheri 63,293, Assandh 56,724 and Israna 51,761 votes.

Political experts say that it was the fourth victory of the BJP in 18 elections, including one byelection, from this seat since its inception in 1952. The Congress had won the seat the maximum 11 times, while the Jan Sangh had won it once and the Janata Party twice.  

They say that the Congress and other opposition parties failed to gauge the strong undercurrent of Narendra Modi’s charisma, which some refer to as Modi tsunami. “It was an election between Narendra Modi and others, who wanted to remove him, but the people of Karnal and Panipat ensured a landslide victory for the BJP, giving a message to the Opposition that Modi is still their prime choice,” says Kushal Pal, associate professor and head of Political Science Department, Dyal Singh College, Karnal.

BJP workers gear up for Assembly elections

Karnal was once considered a bastion of the Congress, but the BJP has won the seat for the second time consecutively. BJP workers are on cloud nine and they have started preparations for the Assembly elections due in October. They have started campaigning on social media on the lines of ‘NaMo again’, — ‘Mano again’in Haryana.  

CM opens camp office

Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar has opened a camp office in Prem Nagar, the area across the railway line where most of the residents are those who had arrived after Partition. Before the last Assembly elections, Khattar had taken a building on rent there with a message that he would remain among them. After becoming Chief Minister, Khattar had hardly ever stayed in that house. But now he has opened a camp office in another building. Political experts say that it will help the BJP in mobilising voters living across the railway line.