BJP wins big in Kamal Nath's bastion Chhindwara

Bhopal, June 4 (IANS) Celebrations have begun in the Madhya Pradesh unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as the party is set to sweep all the 29 Lok Sabha seats in the state.

However, what is more important for the BJP is that it has wrested Chhindwara from the Congress, the only seat in MP the BJP could not win since 1997.

In Chhindwara, BJP’s Vivek ‘Bunty’ Sahu has won by over 1.3 lakh votes against his nearest rival and sitting Congress MP Nakul Nath, the son of party veteran Kamal Nath.

A low-profile BJP leader, Sahu had unsuccessfully contested his first elections against Kamal Nath in the Assembly bypoll from Chhindwara in 2019.

The BJP had fielded him again against Kamal Nath in the Assembly elections held in November last year, but he lost again.

However, despite two consecutive defeats, the BJP reposed faith in him to take on the Kamal Nath family from Chhindwara by fielding him against Nakul Nath.

Sahu got an edge after Kamal Nath’s close aide Deepak Saxena left the Congress and joined the BJP a few days before voting was held in Chhindwara.

Chhindwara has been the bastion of Kamal Nath since 1980. The family won as many as 13 elections from the seat since then (11 Lok Sabha and 3 Assembly polls).

Kamal Nath represented Chhindwara for a record nine times, while his wife Alka Nath won this seat in 1996.

The Jan Sangh’s Sundarlal Patwa (ex-CM) had won Chhindwara in 1997, which was the only win for the BJP from this seat, before Sahu helped the party wrest the seat from the Congress.

–IANS

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