Kamal Nath’s son vs ‘Chhindwara ka beta’: In key MP seat battle, BJP bets on Congress bugbear

With the ruling BJP naming its candidates for all 29 Lok Sabha seats in Madhya Pradesh, a fierce contest seems to be in the offing in the crucial Chhindwara seat where the BJP’s district president Vivek Bunty Sahu will take on incumbent Congress MP Nakul Nath, the son of ex-chief minister Kamal Nath.

The Chhindwara constituency has been Congress veteran and nine-time MP Kamal Nath’s stronghold for more than four decades.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP bagged 28 seats in the state, but missed out on picking Chhindwara again, where Nakul won with a margin of 37,536 votes.

This time, the BJP is set to go all out to wrest this seat, which has been firmly under Nath’s grasp for 44 years since he was first elected as an MP in 1980.

On the other hand, Vivek Bunty Sahu has so far contested from the Chhindwara Assembly constituency on the plank of “Chhindwara ka beta” in the last two elections, but failed to clinch it.

In the November 2023 Assembly elections, the BJP renominated Sahu against Nath from the Chhindwara seat, where he, BJP insiders said, “campaigned as ‘Chhindwara ka beta’ in order to counter the projection of Nath as a family member of Chhindwara voters”. Nath defeated Sahu by 35, 594 votes.

Sahu had first clashed with Nath in Chhindwara in the 2019 bypoll after the latter took over as the CM, losing by 25,837 votes.

However, several BJP leaders from the district brush aside the record of Sahu’s losses against Nath. BJP leader Alkesh Lamba said, “Kamal Nath won in 2023 elections because in Chhindwara the voters thought that he would become the chief minister. Now that is not a possibility anymore. Furthermore, Sahu has been working hard on the ground and ramping up his personal connect with the voters. This has