BJP repeats 2014 clean sweep in Karnal district
In a repeat of its 2014 performance, the BJP once again swept all five Assembly segments of Karnal district in the 2024 Assembly elections.
In the 2019 Assembly elections, the BJP won three seats — Gharaunda, Karnal and Indri and lost Assandh and Nilokheri seats. In the 2024 Assembly elections, the BJP won all five seats by a good margin, except Assandh where the winning margin was of 2,306 votes.
BJP candidate from Gharaunda Harvinder Kalyan retained his seat and won the elections by a margin of 4,531 votes. Kalyan, who won the seat for the third consecutive time, got 87,236 votes, while Congress candidate Varinder Singh Rathore polled 82,705 votes.
Nilokheri candidate Bhagwan Das Kabirpanthi, who won the seat in 2014 and suffered a defeat in 2019, again won the seat this time by a margin of 18,845 votes. He polled 77,902 votes, while his nearest rival Congress candidate and former MLA Dharampal Gonder got 59,057 votes. Gonder won the seat in 2019 as an Independent candidate and had supported the Congress ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.
Ram Kumar Kashyap, BJP candidate and former MLA from Indri, retained his seat and won the elections by a margin of 15,149 votes. Kashyap polled 80,465 votes, while Kamboj got 65,316 votes.
Similarly, BJP candidate from Karnal Jagmohan Anand won the seat by a margin of 33,652 votes. Anand got 90,006 votes, while Congress candidate and former MLA Sumita Singh Virk secured 56,354 votes. Karnal seat was the issue of prestige for the BJP as caretaker CM Nayab Singh Saini won the bypoll four months ago. Earlier, former CM Manohar Lal Khattar was elected MLA from this seat in 2014 and 2019.
Yoginder Singh Rana from Assandh won the seat by a margin of 2,306 votes. He received 54,761 votes, while Congress candidate and former MLA Shamsher Singh Gogi got 52,455 votes.
