Karnal to see keenly contested fight

Parveen Arora

Tribune News Service

Karnal, October 20

The battle lines have been drawn for an interesting contest in Karnal district, where all five seats are with the ruling BJP. The party is confident of making a clean sweep again. Will it? Reports from the field indicate that it won’t be a cakewalk this time.

The BJP is locked in triangular or multi-cornered contests on three out of five seats in the district. On one seat, it is sitting pretty and, on the other, it is a direct contest with the Congress.

About the 10.9 lakh voters will decide the fate of 59 candidates on Monday.

In Karnal, Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar is pitted against Congress candidate Trilochan Singh. Khattar seems to have an edge. BJP workers have fixed a victory margin target of more than 1 lakh votes. Trilochan Singh, however, is confident of springing a surprise.

In Gharaunda, BJP’s Harvinder Kalyan is in close contest with Congress’ Anil Rana. Political pundits say the winning margin will be very thin.

Known for close contests, the Assandh constituency will witness a tough fight among BJP nominee Bakhshish Singh Virk, Congress’ Shamsher Singh Gogi, BSP’s Narinder Rana, JJP’s Brij Sharma, and two Independent candidates Zile Ram Sharma and Sanjay Mehla.

At Nilokheri, BJP candidate Bhagwan Das Kabirpanthi will find the going tough because of party rebel Dharampal entering the fray. Congress candidate Banta Ram Valmiki makes the contest triangular.

In Indri, Congress rebel Rakesh Kamboj, who is contesting as an Independent, has created trouble for BJP’s Ram Kumar Kashyap, a Rajya Sabha MP.

Dr Ramji Lal, retired principal of Dyal Singh College here, says the BJP has its task cut out in Karnal district.

The BJP, however is confident of retaining all five seats. Chander Parkash Kathuria, senior party leader, said: “The party will win all five seats as people are happy with works done by the Chief Minister and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The Khattar-led government has abolished the ‘parchi’ and ‘kharchi’ system in jobs.”