Union energy minister and Karnal MP Manohar Lal Khattar on Friday said it was “overconfidence” in the Congress that created an atmosphere favorable to his party ahead of the state assembly elections. Addressing party leaders and workers at ‘Diwali milano’ and ‘abhinandan samaroh’ in Karnal on the occasion of the party’s election victory, Khattar recalled the “achievements” of the government under his rule over 10 years and thanked the party cadre for their hard work, leading to the Assembly poll victory.

The celebration was special for Khattar as the saffron party won all nine segments in the Karnal Lok Sabha seat, including five in Karnal and four in Panipat. Assembly speaker and Gharounda MLA Harvinder Kalyan, chief whip and Indri MLA Ramkumar Kashyap, Assandh MLA Yogender Rana, Karnal MLA Jagmohan Anand, Nilokheri MLA Bhagwandas Kabirpanthi, district BJP working president Brij Gupta and others were also present on the occasion.

Quoting German Nazi politician and propagandist Joseph Goebbels, he said Goebbels once said: If you want people to accept your lie as truth, just keep repeating it and people will eventually start to believe it. “The Congress started spreading the claim that they will form the government and the BJP will leave. They repeated this over and over again. They had time, but we were busy with our work. “This could have worked,” he said.

“Secondly, I asked one of the people who own an exit poll agency about their work. He explained that they asked voters outside a booth who they voted for. About 40 out of 100 people will respond. These 40 people are vocal voters and you know only they (Congress) are such people. “My staff is determined to work quietly only on the task assigned to them,” he added.

The MP also pointed out other factors like the Congress’s willingness to form an alliance despite trust and the CM not naming his face. He also referred to the government’s “popular” policies and claimed that these factors were working in the BJP’s favour.

He appealed to farmers to avoid stubble burning and take advantage of government policies to reduce air pollution.

Khattar also appointed representatives to Karnal and Panipat districts, which fall under the Karnal parliamentary seat. He appointed Kavinder Singh, the party’s state coordinator of the legal cell, as his pratinidhi (representative) for Karnal and Gajender Kumar Saluja for Panipat as the state head of the party’s membership campaign.

Sources familiar with the development said that both of them were actively participating in Khattar’s election campaign in their respective districts. Official orders were awaited pending submission of this report.