- Congress lost in 29 seats in Lok Sabha
- Won 163 seats in Vidhan Sabha
Kanhaiya Lodhi, Bhopal
When the assembly elections were held in MP in the year 2023, the BJP surprised everyone by winning 163 seats in the state. Then the BJP performed brilliantly in all the areas of the state and won a big victory, but despite the tremendous undercurrent in favor of the BJP in the state, it did not affect Chhindwara district.
Congress candidates were victorious on all the seats here. The BJP did not succeed in breaking into Kamal Nath’s strong fort, but during the Lok Sabha elections, the politics of the district took such a turn that MLA Kamlesh Pratap Singh, who was counted among Kamal Nath’s trusted soldiers from Amarwara assembly constituency, left the Congress and joined the BJP. Not only this, he also resigned from the membership of the Legislative Assembly. Now that the by-election has been announced on the vacant seat here, BJP now faces the challenge of breaking this fort, while on the other hand, after the crushing defeat in all 29 seats in the state in the Lok Sabha elections, Congress will now contest here with broken morale. This by-election has now become a matter of prestige for both the parties. Here, more than Congress, Kamal Nath’s reputation is at stake.
The effect of the Lok Sabha elections will also be seen: In the Lok Sabha elections too, BJP had left Congress far behind in the entire state, Kamal Nath’s son Nakul Nath was in the fray as a Congress candidate in the most prestigious Chhindwara parliamentary constituency, but he too had to face defeat from BJP candidate Bunty Sahu by a margin of more than one lakh votes on this seat. This result was not only disappointing for the Congress, but was also disappointing for former Chief Minister and Congress stalwart Kamal Nath, he would have never thought that in the last phase of his life, his hold in the Chhindwara parliamentary constituency would be so weak that he could not even make his successor son win the election. BJP had prepared a great strategy to defeat Congress from here in the Lok Sabha elections. They even pulled Kamal Nath’s right hand man Deepak Saxena from Congress camp and made him join BJP. Not only this, BJP also tried to woo the mayor of Chhindwara and he joined BJP. However, he kept wavering later and kept showing loyalty sometimes here and sometimes there. Finally, he withdrew his step after appealing to vote in favour of the Congress candidate. BJP did not make any mistake in the case of Amarwara MLA Kamlesh Pratap Singh. After Shah’s resignation, only 6 out of 7 seats of Chhindwara remained with Congress and a by-election was required here.
Now the strategy will change
The person who was contesting from Amarwara assembly constituency as a Congress candidate in the last assembly elections, will now contest as a BJP candidate. BJP will field Kamlesh Pratap Singh from here. After all, his condition for joining BJP was that he will get a chance in the assembly elections. In such a situation, it is natural that Monica Manmohan Shah Batti, who was the BJP candidate for the 2023 assembly elections, will not get a BJP ticket this time. Monica had also joined the BJP before the assembly elections, her father Manmohan Shah Batti has been a big leader of the Gondwana Republic Party. Gongpa also has a lot of influence in Amarwara assembly constituency, this can be understood from the fact that in the last assembly elections, Gongpa candidate Deviram Bhalavi was at third place and he got 18131 votes in a contest between a total of 9 candidates. BJP’s Monica was then defeated by Congress’s Shah by 25086 votes. NOTA also got 5003 votes.
