Haryana ex-Speaker in fight to regain family legacy

Sushil Manav

Tribune News Service

Karnal, January 24

For former Haryana Speaker Kuldeep Sharma, the Congress candidate from Karnal, it is about regaining the family legacy. The Karnal seat was won by his late father Chiranji Lal four times in a row, thrice defeating BJP bigwig Sushma Swaraj.

The BJP, which won this seat in 2014 with the highest margin in the state with its candidate Ashwani Chopra, has fielded CM Manohar Lal Khattar’s confidant Sanjay Bhatia this time. 

Sharma, who filed his nomination papers yesterday, opened election offices in Panipat, Panipat-Rural, Israna and Assandh today. His supporters gathered outside a showroom at the Safidon-Panipat road at Matlauda where he opened his office amid heat and haze, with the mercury touching 41 degress Celsius. 

“The BJP is just trying to cash in on the sacrifices of our soldiers by seeking votes in the name of surgical strikes. We are proud of our soldiers, but the BJP has no right to politicise the forces,” he tells the crowds.

“The BJP government has nothing to say on development and has announced a mere Rs 6,000 per annum for farmers,” he adds, lauding Congress president Rahul Gandhi’s NYAY scheme ensuring Rs 72,000 per annum to the poor. 

The BJP nominee, whose candidature was announced on April 6, has already taken the lead in campaigning. Though a lesser known face with his area of influence limited to Panipat alone, it is Bhatia’s  proximity to the CM that makes him a formidable opponent. Owing to the CM’s preference for Bhatia, Arvind Sharma was allotted the much tougher Rohtak seat though he had joined the BJP in the hope of being fielded from Karnal. 

An unassuming Bhatia addresses crowds in Punjabi and Multani at Kalampura, Dabri, Pundrak villages. “It was because of Modi’s strong policies that post Pulwama, our soldiers carried out surgical strikes in Pakistan’s territory even as Congress leaders spoke in Pakistan’s language, demanding proof for the same. Will our soldier drop bombs or count the dead?” he asks a crowd at Dabri. The response is a rapturous applaud. “Had Pakistan not returned pilot Abhinandan within 24 hours, the IAF would have wiped off Pakistan from the world’s map,” he adds dramatically.

As Bhatia’s cavalcade moves from village to village, farmers are seen harvesting the wheat crop. “Nearly 60 per cent of the crop has been harvested, but 40 per cent has been delayed owing to rains,” observes a BJP worker in Bhatia’s entourage.

LOOKING BACK

• Congress candidate Kuldeep Sharma’s father won the Karnal LS eat in 1980, 1984 and 1989, defeating Sushma Swaraj of the BJP
• He became MP for the fourth time in a row by defeating Chasham Pal Singh of the JD in 1991; he lost to BJP’s ID Swami in 1996
• Pandit Chiranji Lal fought from Sonepat in 1999, but he lost the parliamentary election to Kishan Singh Sangwan of the BJP
• In 2004, when Arvind Sharma was fielded from Karnal, a livid Kuldeep entered the fray as Ind as advised by father but lost