Karnal: CM Khattar on strong wicket, but youth angry over lack of jobs

The Congress has fielded Tarlochan Singh, former chairman of the state minority commission, and the Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) has given a ticket to Tej Bahadur Yadav. Then a BSF constable, Yadav made headlines in 2017 when he uploaded videos on social media complaining about the quality of food served in the force. Later, he was dismissed from the BSF. The INLD has not fielded anyone in Karnal.

Ashutosh Kumar, a political scientist at Panjab University, says the Congress high command has abdicated its responsibility. “The candidates are being left to fend for themselves, the Gandhis are not coming to their rescue.”

That may explain the muted poll vibe and the buzz about low turnout.

Karnal, the aspirational city of astronaut Kalpana Chawla, is usually not so predictable.

Even in the December 2018 mayoral polls, it gave quite a scare to the ruling BJP when its candidate won by a thin margin of 9,000 votes.

But in the last 10 months, Khattar has managed to neutralise the Opposition by getting INLD leader Manoj Wadhwa, the husband of Asha Wadhwa who finished second in the mayoral polls, to join the BJP. Jai Prakash Gupta, the Congress candidate pitched against Khattar in the 2014 polls, has also joined the party.

A section of Karnal, which sought to dismiss Khattar as an outsider five years ago, has finally warmed up to him. Narinder Singh Cheema, a member of the Bar Council, makes no bones about the fact that he is a Khattar fan. “He is an honest Chief Minister. The city has developed under his watch. Roads have been repaired, drainage revamped, traffic policemen are doing their job and the city is cleaner than ever. We used to be flooded with dengue cases, but this year we haven’t heard of any.”

The advocates have a reason to cheer. The Khattar-led government has set up the Haryana Administrative Tribunal, which will work out of Karnal, despite protests by the Punjab and Haryana High Court lawyers.

The tribunal is meant to adjudicate over the service matters of the state employees that earlier would be directly heard by the High Court.

At Pundrak village, Sonu Kumar, a Gujjar, says he is happy as he gets a stipend of Rs 1,500 a month for being a graduate. His neighbour Deep Chand, a dairy farmer-cum-shopkeeper, is satisfied with the electricity supply.

However, there are murmurs of discontent. Two women treating themselves to cold milk in Karnal market say the crime rate is spiralling and snatchings and robberies are on the rise.

While Cheema praises Khattar, a lawyer gently mentions how buses are old and there is little connectivity between the surrounding villages and the city. Others say digitalisation has robbed many of jobs at the court complex.

Parth Sharma from a neighbouring village glares the moment Khattar is mentioned. “He has done nothing. I couldn’t get a job because of two marks, I will never vote for him,” he says.

His sister says the Chief Minister has made applying for jobs “more difficult”. “I saw on YouTube that now you will have to clear an exam to even fill up the job application form.”

The siblings are not alone. On the outskirts of the town, a young Sukhvinder Singh asks, “What has he done? Where are the jobs?”

But Azad Kumar, a BJP functionary at Karnal, says they are confident. “The Chief Minister has no competition, all we are worried about is the margin. We have set a target of one lakh.” BJP workers comprising scores of panna pramukhs are now focusing on just one goal — to get people to the poll booth.