Following an aggressive campaign in Madhya Pradesh’s Chhindwara, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) clinched the former State Chief Minister Kamal Nath’s bastion from the Congress in the Lok Sabha election. BJP candidate Vivek Bunty Sahu defeated Mr. Kamal Nath’s son and incumbent MP Nakul Nath by over 1.13 lakh votes.
Chhindwara Lok Sabha seat was represented nine times by the former Chief Minister and once by his wife Alka Nath. It was the only seat among the State’s 29 seats that the Congress won in the 2019 general election, with Mr. Nakul Nath securing it by a margin of 37,536 votes.
This time, however, the BJP appeared determined to wrest the constituency from the Congress and make a clean sweep in the State. Starting early, the party went ahead with an aggressive strategy against the Nath family with senior BJP leaders and State Ministers, including Kailash Vijayvargiya and Prahlad Singh Patel, camping in Chhindwara for weeks.
Chief Minister Mohan Yadav, former CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan and other senior leaders held a number of rallies in Chhindwara. In fact, soon after the Assembly election last year, Mr. Chouhan had informally launched the party’s campaign in the constituency, where the Congress had won all seven Assembly segments. Even though Mr. Chouhan was replaced with Mr. Yadav days later, the party’s outreach continued. Union Home Minister also held a roadshow in the seat on the last day of campaigning.
The BJP’s strategy included inducting several Congress leaders, ranging from ground-level workers to an MLA to Mr. Kamal Nath’s aides, such as Deepak Saxena and Syed Jafar.
Chhindwara Mayor Vikram Ahakey had also joined the ruling party but returned to the Congress on the polling day on April 19, with an apology to Mr. Kamal Nath.
The Congress’s prospects in Chhindwara were also harmed by the rumour that spread in political circles earlier this year — that Mr. Nath, who was the party’s CM candidate in the Assembly poll, was reportedly upset by his removal as the party’s State unit chief and was poised to join the BJP.
Though Mr. Kamal Nath dismissed the rumours, the speculations put the Congress in an awkward position. Observers said the episode was the reason that no national Congress leader campaigned in the Lok Sabha seat, ensuring that the contest was between the BJP and the Nath family.
Taking to social media platform X on Tuesday, Mr. Kamal Nath said Chhindwara was his family and accepted the results.
“The decision of the voters of Chhindwara is a matter of great respect. Chhindwara is my family. I have spent my entire life serving Chhindwara and will continue to serve Chhindwara till my last breath. I express my gratitude to all the Congress workers who have worked hard with all their might. We have to struggle further and build a golden Chhindwara,” he wrote.
Mr. Nakul Nath also congratulated Mr. Sahu.
