Shah & Nadda to Rajnath Singh, BJP pulling out all stops to rescue Khattar from tight spot in Karnal

Karnal: The Bharatiya Janata Party is pulling out all the stops to support former Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, who is in a tough spot in the Karnal Parliamentary constituency. He faces not just a challenge from Congress greenhorn Divyanshu Budhiraja, but also lingering anti-incumbency sentiments from his nine-and-a-half-years as CM, internal turmoil within the party, and angry farmers in the region.

Over the last few days, the BJP has sent three top central leaders to campaign for Khattar. On 19 May, BJP president JP Nadda held two public meetings in the constituency, followed over the next two days by rallies addressed by Home Minister Amit Shah and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh in Karnal’s Namaste Chowk and Gharaunda respectively.

Union minister Ramdas Athawale, Uttarakhand CM Pushkar Singh Dhami, and religious leaders like Kurukshetra’s Swami Gyananand and Bageshwar Dham’s Dhirendra Krishan Shastri have also been roped in by the BJP to seek votes for Khattar.

A BJP source said that while Karnal is considered a very “safe” seat, the party did not want to take any chances given the “recent developments” there. While he declined to elaborate, the BJP has been facing turmoil in Karnal in the form of farmers’ protests, resignations by some party leaders, opposition from sarpanches and Zila Parishad members, and disgruntlement from various caste groups.

Per various estimates, the Karnal Parliamentary seat comprises about 13 percent Punjabi voters, 12 percent Jats, 9 percent Brahmins, 7.5 percent Rod-Maratha, 6 percent Sikhs, 4.5 percent Rajputs, 4.5 percent Muslims, 3.5 percent Agarwal, and almost 20 percent each of SCs and OBCs.

Despite the BJP’s claims of support from Other Punjabi Castes (OPC) voters, Jat and Sikhs have been upset with Khattar in the wake of the farmers’ protest earlier this year. Last month, the former CM was not able to carry out his roadshow in two Sikh-dominated villages because a large contingent of farmers wouldn’t let him enter. Adding to troubles, midway through the campaign, two prominent Punjabi leaders, Rohita Rewri and Manoj Wadhwa, left the BJP.

There are other thorny issues too. The SCs fear losing their reservation if the BJP secures a “400 paar” mandate, while Virender Verma “Maratha,” a leader from the locally influential Rod community,  is contesting on an Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) ticket with Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) support, potentially splitting votes further.

Additionally, Brahmins and Rajputs are reportedly unhappy with the BJP for various reasons. In a widely shared video, members of the Brahmin community can be seen preventing Khattar from speaking at a Parsuram Jayanti function in Panipat earlier this month. Similarly, Rajputs are unhappy with the BJP over the Mihir Bhoj caste controversy. At a convention held in Barara on 5 May, many resolved to oppose the party.

“The visits of Nadda and Rajnath Singh were aimed at placating Brahmins and Rajputs respectively,” said the BJP source.

The Karnal seat is crucial for another reason as well. Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini is contesting the bypoll from the Karnal assembly segment— necessitated by Khattar’s resignation on 13 March, a day after he handed over the reins of power in Haryana to Saini in a leadership change orchestrated by the BJP’s central command.

Khattar and Saini had been travelling across Haryana to seek votes for other candidates in the state, but both have been camping in Karnal for the past six days. Polling on all 10 seats of Haryana is set to be held on May 25.

Angry farmers, urban anti-incumbency

The BJP won the Karnal Lok Sabha seat in 2019 by a huge margin of 6.56 lakh votes, the second highest in the country after Navsari in Gujarat. Of the nine assembly segments in the Karnal Lok Sabha seat, four are held by the BJP (Indri, Gharaunda, Panipat City, and Panipat Rural), three by Congress (Assandh, Israna, and Samalkha), and Nilokheri’s Independent MLA Dharampal Gonder recently joined Congress. In the Karnal assembly seat vacated by Khattar, Saini is up against Congress’s Tarlochan Singh.

But the region is no longer considered as ‘safe’ for the BJP as before, with the party’s candidates facing protests from farmers in rural areas since the campaign began in March.

According to political analyst Hemant Atri, the BJP’s response to the farmers’ Dilli Chalo march in February, where one farmer was killed and several others injured, as well as the 2020-21 protests over farm laws, where over 750 farmers lost their lives, is the main reason behind rural opposition. Issues like the women wrestlers’ protests and the Agniveer scheme have further impacted the BJP’s standing among Jats and Jatt Sikhs.

It’s not all-clear for the BJP in urban areas either.

“With the polling date drawing nearer, the urban voters, who were silent until now, have started airing their grievances against the BJP government,” Atri said. “The family ID and property ID schemes launched by the BJP government in Haryana made people stand in queues for months together. Since Khattar is the man behind the launching of these schemes, he’s bearing the brunt.”

However, Praveen Attrey, Khattar’s media secretary, dismissed the notion that top national leaders campaigning in Karnal is unusual.

“The BJP has a style of its own when it comes to elections. The party gives its 100 percent during campaigns. The party issues a list of star campaigners. These campaigners are supposed to travel across the country to address rallies, which is what the senior leaders are doing,” he said, adding that all signs pointed to victory for Khattar in Karnal.

Attrey added that there was no question of people from any community being unhappy with Khattar and that the protests during events like the one organised by the Brahmin community were the handiwork of “vested interests”.

“The BJP will win this seat by a record margin and a better margin than the party won in 2019,” said Attrey.

Meanwhile, Congress candidate Divyanshu Budhiraja’s campaign, like on many other seats in Haryana, is plagued by infighting within the party or a lack of support by party leaders.

Former Haryana Speaker Kuldeep Sharma who contested from Karnal in 2019 is nowhere to be seen in Budhiraja’s campaign, as is the case with Sumita Singh, a former Congress MLA from Karnal. Sharma, however, told ThePrint that the only reason he is not seen in Karnal is that he has been assigned as a star campaigner in Sonipat and Sirsa and has been busy with his duties there.

(Edited by Asavari Singh)