BHOPAL: It will be the first-time sitting MP son Nakul Nath and not his nine-time former parliamentarian father Kamal Nath who’ll contest the coming Lok Sabha polls from Chhindwara seat – the opposition Congress’s lone unconquered citadel of the 2019 polls.
“Assembly polls were held in November 2023 in three states, but Chhindwara parliamentary constituency remains the only constituency, where all the assembly segments were won by the Congress. The credit for it goes to all our workers present here. Vidhan Sabha and Lok Sabha polls are totally different, there are many candidates which leads to groupism in assembly polls. But there is no groupism in LS polls as there is only one candidate, I am your candidate in the coming Lok Sabha polls,” Nakul Nath said.
Addressing a meeting of Congress workers in Parasia assembly segment of Chhindwara LS constituency in father Kamal Nath’s presence, the sitting Congress MP said, “Let me clear the uncertainty about whether I or Kamal Nath Ji will contest from Chhindwara, by stating that I’ll contest from Chhindwara LS seat. The election in Chhindwara will be fought by me under his (Kamal Nath) guidance and support. You’ll have supported Kamal Nath and the Nath family for 42 years, I’m confident that the Nath family will get the same support and affection in the coming election also,” Nath Jr added.
The sitting Congress MP’s announcement happened just two days after his former CM and nine-times former parliamentarian father Kamal Nath had told journalists that winnability factor will guide the Congress party in deciding candidates on all seats, including Chhindwara.
Importantly, much before the Congress officially declared candidates for the seven assembly segments of his parliamentary seat in 2023 polls, Nakul Nath had himself announced the names of the same candidates at separate public meetings in Chhindwara, while his father was the state Congress chief and party’s CM face in MP.
Importantly, Chhindwara seat was the lone parliamentary constituency in Madhya Pradesh, which was won by the Congress in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. All other 28 seats in the state, including two other Congress citadels – Jyotiraditya Scindia’s Guna seat and Kantilal Bhuria’s Ratlam-Jhabua ST seats – were won by the BJP.
In the 2019 elections, Nakul Nath had made a winning Lok Sabha polls debut from his family’s pocket-borough by 37,536 votes, while Kamal Nath-led Congress government was in power in MP. Nakul Nath’s winning margin, however, was more than three times smaller than the 1.16 lakh-plus votes winning margin of his father in the 2014 LS polls from the same seat.
The Chhindwara seat since four decades has become synonymous with the Nath family headed by ex-union minister and former MP CM Kamal Nath, who won it nine times between 1980 and 2014, while his wife Alka Nath won it in 1996. In the last 43 years, the BJP has won the seat only once, when ex-CM Sunder Lal Patwa emerged victorious in the 1997 by-election.
