Karnal (Haryana):Former Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar has won by over 2 lakh votes in Karnal Lok Sabha seat, according to the latest data by Election Commission of India. Khattar, so far, has polled 683841 votes, defeating Congress candidate Divyanshu Budhiraja by 211260 votes.
Karnal is an agricultural-industrial district in the north-central part of Haryana, In October 2014, when the BJP came to power in Haryana on its own strength for the first time, Khattar, a first-time MLA from Karnal, was made the chief minister. Nine-and-a-half years later, the party handpicked Khattar's protege and Kurukshetra MP Nayab Saini to replace him as chief minister.
The change of guard by the ruling BJP in Haryana came as a big surprise, but Khattar maintains the decision to replace him with Saini as the chief minister was not a sudden one and that he had suggested this to Prime Minister Narendra Modi more than a year ago.