Karnal Known as Karna Nagri and named after the famous king Karna of Mahabharata , remains the hottest seat of Lok Sabha after the BJP has fielded former Chief Minister Manohar Lal who recently resigned from the membership of state assembly vacating the seat from newly appointed CM Nayab Saini.
Since the new CM also has to contest the assembly poll from Karnal, it continues to remain in discussions as the Karnal assembly has to decide the fate of the new CM of Haryana. The date of voting for the Karnal Lok Sabha constituency is 25 May as announced by the Election Commission of India. Karnal Lok Sabha seat situated on the GT road is being considered the bastion of the ruling saffron BJP for last two parliamentary polls the main opposition Congress party;s contestants could not survive the polls. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, BJP candidate Sanjay Bhatia won from the Karnal garnering 911594 votes.
Securing 70 percent of the total votes BJP defeated Congress stalwart Kuldeep Sharma who got 255452 votes while prior to this, the BJP contestant. Karnal Lok Sabha seat is made up of 9 assembly constituency segments including 5 from Karnal itself while 4 from adjoining Panipat district. .
In Loksabha elections 2014, Ashwini Kumar of BJP party won with 5,94,704 votes. It is worth mentioning that the Congress still remains undecided in terms of deciding the candidate on the seat so far.
The Congress has emerged victorious for maximum 10 times on the seat after the Lok Sabha constituency came into existence. Late Chiranji Lal, the father of the Congress heavyweight Kuldeep Sharma succeeded in winning the seat for a maximum record four times. It is pertinent to mention that Arvind Sharma who has been fielded by the BJP from the Rohtak seat was the runner up on the seat while contesting on the ticket of the Congress in Lok Sabha polls and he faced the debacle with a huge margin of 3,60,047 votes. Earlier, Arvind Sharma marked the consecutive victory on the ticket of Congress from Karnal parliamentary seat in polls held in 2004 and 2009. Since the Congress has been facing fiasco on the seat for the last two elections, the party is on toes to ensure its victory. The caste equations also play a pivotal role on the seat. Notably, the maximum number of voters are from Punjabi Community, the former CM Manohar Lal hails from followed by the Jat voters are on second number. Besides, Brahmin, Road, OBC and Sikh voters do also constitute a sizable chunk of the total voters in Karnal.
Karnal is the third largest Lok Sabha constituency with 20780007 voters and it comprises five assembly constituencies of Karnal district — Karnal, Nilokheri, Indri, Gharaunda and Assandh while four assembly constituencies of Panipat district — Panipat Urban, Panipat Rural, Israna and Samalkha. In January, 2023, the number of voters of 5 assembly constituencies of Karnal district was 1169 213, which has now increased to 1185 797. Thus, in the last one year the number of voters in Karnal district has increased by 16584. However, on the other hand, voters in Panipat district have decreased by 2685 in the last one year.
It is pertinent to mention that Virendra Kumar Satyawadi was the first elected MP contesting on the ticket of Indian National Congress followed by another Congress leader Subhadra Joshi in 1957. In 1962, Swami Rameshwarananda of Bharatiya Jan Sangh won from Karnal Lok Sabha while further Madhoram Sharma from the Indian National Congress became the MP here in 1967 and 1971. Bhagwat Dayal Sharma, former CM of Haryana was elected MP from Janata Party in 1977 and Mohindra Singh in 1978. Chiranji Lal Sharma, also from Congress, was elected MP from here for four consecutive times in 1980, 1984, 1989, 1991 while Ishwar Dayal Swami of BJP emerged victorious seat in 1996 but lost the seat in 1998 to former CM Bhajan Lal, the father of BJP stalwart Kuldeep Sharma. In 1999 again Ishwar Dayal Swami won the elections on the ticket of the BJP by defeating Bhajanlal. Dr. Arvind Sharma was the winning candidate from the sear on the ticket of Congress for two consecutive terms in 2004 and 2009.
While Ashwini Chopra and Sanjay bhatia both hailing from Punjabi community who contested the polls on ticked of marked victory in 2014 and 2019 respectively.