Kamal Nath should retire from politics: ‘Giant killer’ Vivek Sahu on breaching Nath family bastion

One of the biggest winners of the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections in Madhya Pradesh was Vivek ‘Bunty’ Sahu, the 45-year-old chief of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Chhindwara unit. The leader became a ‘giant slayer’ Tuesday after results showed that he had beaten Congress’s sitting MP Nakul Nath in Chhindwara — the stronghold of Kamal Nath, Nakul’s father and a former chief minister of the state — by a margin of 1,13,618 votes.

For Sahu, this is a major triumph. Until now, the leader had lost thrice to the Nath family first to Nakul Nath in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls and later to Kamal Nath in the 2019 Madhya Pradesh assembly bypolls and the assembly elections held late last year.

The victory is significant for the BJP too. Until it finally fell, the Nath family bastion had eluded the BJP in successive elections despite its nearly two decades of rule in the state.

In an exclusive interview with The Indian Express, Bunty speaks about his win, his plans for Chhindwara, and what went wrong for Nakul Nath this election season.

The people of Chhindwara have given me a big responsibility. They have accepted our dreams and put their faith in us. I’m happy and will work towards helping Chhindwara develop and grow.

I think the biggest factor was Modi. The policies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi have been accepted by the people. In the last 10 years, there was a BJP government in the Centre and a Congress MP in Chhindwara. Voters were fed up with the MP and wanted to be part of the BJP government’s development agenda.

Nakul did not play his part as an MP (as he should have). He would come to Chhindwara holding his father’s hand, picnic here and leave. His whole campaign was centred on Kamal Nath — Nakul was fighting the election on