People will seek from Khattar account of his term as Haryana CM: Congress candidate from Karnal

Karnal: Seven years after he was briefly jailed for blocking a convoy of then chief minister M L Khattar, Congress leader Divyanshu Budhiraja is set for a showdown with Khattar for the Karnal Lok Sabha constituency.

People of Haryana will seek from Khattar an account of his nine-and-a-half-year tenure as the chief minister of the state, Budhiraja recently told PTI asserting that unemployment is the "biggest" challenge facing the state.

Voting for Haryana's 10 Lok Sabha seats and the Karnal assembly seat will take place on May 25.

Sixty-nine-year-old Khattar filed his nomination papers for the Karnal parliamentary seat on Monday.

Budhiraja said the BJP may have appointed Nayab Singh Saini as the state's new chief minister, but Khattar cannot escape accountability for the state's "high unemployment rate".

"The party has not just given me a ticket to fight but provided me with a platform to ask questions from Khattar including on unemployment from which he has been running away all these years," Budhiraja, the 30-year-old Haryana Youth Congress president said.

"Unemployment today is the biggest issue in Haryana. Khattar Sahab will also have to answer why the state has the highest unemployment rate, and why youth are forced to migrate abroad for lack of opportunities in the state.

"During the farmers' stir (against the now repealed farm laws), everyone knows what farmers had to go through at the hands of the BJP dispensation, Khattar will now have to give an answer on that," he said.

Budhiraja said that he may have entered the contest against Khattar now, but the fight has been going on for the last many years.

"Seven years ago when I confronted (the then CM) Khattar on questions of unemployment, I was sent to jail for three days. I had raised questions about unemployed youth," he said.

In 2017, Budhiraja, who was then the state unit president of the National Students’ Union of India (NSUI), was arrested when he led a group of students at Panchkula’s government college and allegedly tried to block the convoy and disrupt a function attended by then Chief Minister Khattar.

In 2021, Budhiraja became the president of the state Youth Congress while in 2014, he also became president of the Panjab University Students’ Council.

"During the last eight years, we have been raising the voice of unemployed youth and students," he said.

He claimed that when the results of the 10 Lok Sabha seats of Haryana are declared on June 4, "You will see the most surprising results from Karnal".

"After nine and a half years, Khattar was removed as chief minister by his party... I think people will not accept a rejected chief minister in the constituency," he claimed.

"Despite being the CM for nine-and-a-half years, he could not ensure development in the state. What will he be able to do for the people of Karnal," he said.

Khattar, who is contesting a parliamentary election for the first time has been a two-time MLA from the Karnal assembly segment. After Saini replaced him as chief minister in March, the BJP announced Khattar's candidature from Karnal.

Khattar had tendered his resignation as MLA paving the way for Nayab Saini to contest from there in the bypolls which are to be held on May 25, along with elections to 10 parliamentary seats in Haryana.

Budhiraja, who belongs to the Punjabi community -- the same as Khattar -- hails from Gohana in Sonipat district.

"I am the son of a clerk and my mother was a school teacher. No one in my family ever fought even a Sarpanch poll. Youth are happy that an ordinary worker has been given this opportunity," he said about his candidature from Karnal.