From novices to masters, Karnal has them all

Parveen Arora

Karnal, May 17

The Karnal Lok Sabha elections and forthcoming Karnal Assembly byelection have become a stage for a clash of age and experience as an array of candidates contest the seats.

As the electoral battle heats up, Karnal residents have found themselves spoilt for choice, with each candidate having a different age, experience, and ideology.

With candidates spanning from 30-year-olds to seasoned 74-year-olds, the elections have become vibrant.

At 74, bureaucrat-turned-veteran politician Maratha Virender Verma is set to contest on a ticket from the INLD-backed NCP (Sharad Pawar). Belonging to the Ror community, he is a BSc and LLB graduate. To gather votes for himself, he devotes most of his time to public meetings and interaction with supporters.

Two-time former Chief Minister and BJP candidate Manohar Lal Khattar (70) is a graduate and is touring across the state to campaign for all ten Lok Sabha seats in the state and the Karnal Assembly seat. He is riding high on the work done by the Union Government, led by PM Narendra Modi.

BSP candidate Inderjeet Jalmana is 53 years old and a graduate. He has been banking on the party workers and the Sikh community, among others.

JJP candidate Devender Kadian (46) is an LLB graduate, and this would be his second election. He has previously contested elections from the Panipat rural assembly seat. He belongs to the Jaat community, which has a sizable population across the constituency. He seeks votes for the work done by the JJP-led Deputy CM Dushyant Chautala in alliance with the BJP government in the state.

The 30-year-old Congress candidate Divyanshu Budhiraja belongs to the Punjabi community. His aggressive campaigning style is the talk of the town, and in his speeches, he has countered the BJP over inflation, unemployment and other major problems.

Apart from them, Ashok Kataria (44) is a Class X passout and he would be contesting on the ticket of Samst Samaj Party; Harjeet Singh (37) is contesting from Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar); Vineet Choudhary (40) is an MBA graduate and contesting on the ticket of Bhartiya Asha Party; Leema Kohli (48) is a Postgraduate in Business Administration; Ashok Kumar (45) is a graduate; Azad Singh (59) is a Class X passout; Balwan Singh (66) is an ITI graduate; Gulshan Kumar (27) is a postgraduate in Performing Arts; Roop Singh (53) is Class V passout; Manish (37) is a MTech postgraduate; Sonia (37) is a BA-LLB graduate; Nitin (37) is a Class XII passout; Manoj (49) is a graduate in Commerce; Swami Agnivesh (47) is a Class VII passout.

The Karnal Assembly is also going to witness a byelection, with eight candidates in the fray. CM Nayab Singh Saini (54) is an LLB graduate; Congress candidate Trilochan Singh (69) has completed his higher secondary education; and JJP candidate Rajinder Madaan (51) is a matric pass.