Haryana assembly polls: Karnal unhappy on jobs, but Manohar Lal Khattar scores with clean image

On the outskirts of Indri, in the Lok Sabha constituency of Karnal , a sign greets you. “Entry of BJP strictly prohibited. (They) are advised to protect their life and belongings.” It speaks, as much as anything else around here, of an exasperation with the ruling party, especially the food, civil supplies and consumer affairs minister, Karan Dev Kamboj.

“As fast as BJP came, it will leave,” predicts Rakesh Kamboj, who is fighting as an Independent after being refused a ticket by Congress. Gurdev Singh Ramba, the JJP candidate from Indri, says BJP’s days are numbered. “At this moment, with the political equations coming together, and the issues being raised, it seems that that’s what we are headed for,” he shared. “Dushyant ji has sent me here for this very purpose.”

Local MLA Karan Dev Kamboj, the state’s food and supplies minister, is unapproachable and often missing in action, say his constituents. There are also allegations of corruption against him. “If any party’s chances are going to be harmed, it is BJP,” said a resident of Khera village.

Qualified but unemployable

For a fair part of the way, the Atta-Bilaspur road out of Karnal follows the Munak Canal on one side and the Western Yamuna Canal on the other. Fields of paddy straw, sugarcane and wheat hint at rural prosperity, as do factories dotted along the stretch. And the town of Indri bustles like any other in north India, except that it’s cleaner; the Anaj Mandi here is a picture of plenty. Behind all this, however, lies a despondent truth. That of life in the shadow of joblessness.

With an MCom, MBA and BA, Nishu Dutta is more than well qualified. Yet, all that this education has brought her is a commerce teacher’s post in a private school, for which she is paid Rs 6,000 every month. Only money, not degrees, she claims, can guarantee a job in Haryana. Her husband, Rajesh, is also unemployed.

Nishu intends to cast her vote for Rakesh Kamboj, son of former state education minister Desraj. So, too, does her father-in-law Satpal, a Congress loyalist of many years who was a slip of a child when India won freedom. “Since BJP came to power, corruption has increased by leaps and bounds,” he argued, an allegation that runs contradictory to one of the core campaign pitches of BJP, of cleaning up government recruitment and clean governance.

In Salaru, a little ahead of Karnal on the Atta-Bilaspur road, there’s anger. “There are no jobs even for the well qualified — there’s nothing here,” said a farmer whose promise as a young athlete, and time spent teaching in a government school, today appears to count for little. “My whole family is abroad, and people have spent lakhs to send their children out of India.”

It was a tale echoed by one of the influential Virk clan in the village, a gentleman who boasts an MA and PhD in Punjabi. “All we ask for is a candidate who works for us, because the BJP has done nothing for the area,” he bemoaned.

Despite the anger, it’s far from being a walkover in Indri constituency, where a triangular contest is on the cards, and likewise in the constituencies of Assandh and Nilokheri. But for chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar , who is seeking re-election from the Karnal seat, the prospects look good.

Consolidation and pride

“Khattar has consolidated the Punjabi community as a vote bank, and has emerged as a leader of the Punjabis in the same way that Devi Lal and Om Prakash Chautala once were of the Jats,” explains Dr Ramji Lal, a veteran political analyst.

Still, many find the chief minister’s indifference grating. Responding to the dissenting voices, Nand Kishore Gupta, a BJP spokesperson in Karnal, insists there can be no quick fixes to any problem. “We need time to root out corruption, it can’t be done overnight,” he told TOI. “You can’t do everything in one term. And, as far as employment goes, if you’re good enough and if you’ve done well as a student and got a degree, you’ll get a job,” he added.

One who has no complaints against the ruling party is Ajay Gaba, a farmer in Gharaunda constituency. “Whatever we had asked for, BJP has delivered. Skill centres have opened in Gharaunda and jobs have been created — even women have secured employment,” he said, adding, “Our lives have improved considerably.”

Gaba describes his MLA, Harwinder Kalyan, as accessible and a willing listener (not surprisingly, it’s advantage BJP in Gharaunda). But Khattar doesn’t score too high on accessibility. “We were told that to meet with the CM in Karnal, you need to get an appointment made in Chandigarh,” said Amar Singh Patlan, who heads the Ambedkar Samaj Kalyan Sabha in Karnal. “He hasn’t gone out of his way to interact with the common man.”

Congress’s Karnal candidate Tarlochan Singh believes anti-incumbency will be the undoing of BJP. “No development has happened in Karnal. Also, dengue has worsened and there’s no law and order,” alleges Singh. Patlan agrees, stating progress has been limited to a road project and a government medical college (named after Kalpana Chawla, a daughter of Karnal), which itself is short on faculty.

If Khattar is re-elected from Karnal – as much of a given as anything in this election – it will likely be because of his ‘clean’ image, and the pride that Karnal residents feel at having one of their own as CM. “What our leaders say, they do,” says Gupta of BJP.