Punjabi face as usual in Karnal too

The BJP has fielded Jagmohan Anand, former media coordinator to ex-CM, but more importantly a Punjabi face from the Karnal Assembly segment to woo the community’s voters which holds considerable influence in the city.

Besides, the party has retained faith in three of its 2019 candidates, two of whom had won. Sitting MLA Harvinder Kalyan has been fielded from Gharaunda, while sitting MLA Ram Kumar Kashyap has been given the ticket from Indri. The party has also fielded former MLA Bhagwan Das Kabirpanthi, who had lost in 2019, from the Nilokheri seat. A candidate from the Assandh seat is yet to be announced.

Except on a couple of occasions, including fielding CM Nayab Singh Saini in the by-election in 2024, BJP has always fielded Punjabi faces. In 2019, the BJP fielded former CM Manohar Lal Khattar who had won the seat with a margin of 45,188. Khattar got 79,906 votes, while Congress candidate Trilochan Singh got 34,718 votes. In the 2024 by-election, CM Nayab Singh Saini won the seat with a margin of 41,540 votes. Saini got 95,004 votes, while Congress candidate Trilochan Singh got 53,464 votes.

Two-time MLA from Gharaunda Harvinder Kalyan has been fielded for the third consecutive time by the BJP from the seat. Kalyan is a prominent face of the Ror community who won the seat in 2014 and 2019. He won the seat with a margin of 17,402 votes in 2019. He got 67,209 votes, while Congress candidate Anil Kumar managed to get only 49,807. It is his fourth election from the seat. He had unsuccessfully contested elections with a BSP ticket in 2009.

The BJP has also fielded sitting MLA and former Rajya Sabha MP Ram Kumar Kashyap from Indri. Kashyap had won the last Assembly elections with a margin of 7,431 votes. He had received 54,221 votes, while independent candidate and former MLA Rakesh Kamboj got 46,790 votes.

The party also showed faith in former MLA Bhagwan Das Kabirpanthi for the third consecutive time from the Nilokheri seat. He had lost the seat with a margin of 2,222 votes in 2019. Independent candidate Dharampal Gonder had received 42,979 votes, while Kabirpanthi got 40,757. It is Kabirpanthi’s fourth election. He had won the seat in 2014 with a margin of 34,410 votes. He got 58,354 votes. In 2009, he contested as an Independent candidate and lost.