It is 10.30 a.m. on Monday in Chhindwara when Congress veteran and former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath steps out into the lawns of his residence, where over a hundred party workers and supporters are gathered to meet him.
The 77-year-old leader patiently meets them and listens to their issues. Many workers also bring him updates from their respective areas on preparedness for the election that is now only three days to go. After instructing them on the future course of action, Mr. Kamal Nath leaves in his helicopter for campaigning. This is followed by his son and incumbent MP Nakul Nath, and daughter-in-law Priya Nath, heading for campaigning in different areas.
The Nath family is going to face one of its toughest elections on April 19 as Mr. Nakul Nath seeks a second term from the constituency that has been represented by his father nine times and has become synonymous with him.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) here has fielded its district unit president Vivek Bunty Sahu, a vocal critic of Mr. Kamal Nath. Mr. Sahu unsuccessfully contested against Mr. Kamal Nath in the 2023 State Assembly polls. He has tried to draw the battle lines here by terming himself “Chhindwara’s real son” and the Nath family as the “outsiders”.
While the Nath family has been leading the campaign on its own as no top Congress leader has come here yet, Mr. Sahu is backed by an army of BJP heavyweights, including State government Ministers Kailash Vijayvargiya and Prahlad Patel, who are camping here, with Chief Minister Mohan Yadav having held several rallies across the constituency. Union Home Minister Amit Shah will give the BJP a last push here with a roadshow on April 16.
The BJP had won 28 out of 29 Lok Sabha seats in Madhya Pradesh in 2019, barring Chhindwara that picked Mr. Nakul Nath. His margin, however, had come down to 37,536 from 1,16,537 when his father won in 2014.
Prestige battle
Locals here say that the battle is more between Mr. Kamal Nath and the BJP as the former’s “prestige is at stake”.
“The contest is fierce this time and nobody can say for sure who will win now,” Sheikh Riyaz Taji, a visually impaired person who runs a small tyre shop in the Junnardeo Assembly segment, said.
“It is extremely difficult to breach what has been Kamal Nath-ji’s bastion for over 40 years. Pankhe waale baba (a fond reference to the senior Nath) can turn the wind whichever village he lands his helicopter in,” Mr. Taji added.
“Had it been easy this time, Kamal Nath-ji would not have taken the campaign reins in his hands and the whole family would not be working this hard,” a Congress worker at the Nath residence said.
The Congress here is also recovering from a series of defections to the BJP over the past few months. Among the defectors are Mr. Kamal Nath’s aides, including three-term MLA from Amarwara Kamlesh Shah, Chhindwara Mayor Vikram Ahake, and former Chhindwara MLA Deepak Saxena, a long-term associate of the Congress veteran.
While local Congress workers admit that the defections had pulled the cadre’s morale down, and that the election seemed difficult a few weeks ago, they are confident that everything is under control now.
“There was an uncertainty among many of us when some leaders left and there were also rumours that Kamal Nath-ji could also join the BJP. But ever since he started visiting the constituency, the cadre is pumped up again,” Ghanshyam Tiwari, Congress’ Junnardeo block president, said.
Mr. Tiwari claimed that the leaders who have defected grew big because of Mr. Kamal Nath’s blessings, adding that they “do not have an identity of their own”, and that Congress workers have taken it as a “betrayal” that has hit their self-respect.
After Mr. Shah’s switch last month, Mr. Nakul Nath termed him a “traitor”, while his wife has taken an emotional approach when talking about defections.
“I definitely feel sad for papa Kamal Nath-ji, whom they (the turncoats) betrayed when the time came for his agnipareeksha (crucial test). We feel sad because we had accepted them wholeheartedly as our family,” Ms. Nath had said at a campaign rally recently.
Many of the turncoats, however, had blamed their “poor equations” with Mr. Nakul Nath for their decisions, accusing him of “failing” to follow his father’s footsteps.
Between past and future
The BJP, on the other hand, is riding on the popularity of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, people’s sentiments over the consecration of the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya, and hopes of support from beneficiaries of the Centre’s schemes. These factors, added with the defections, give BJP leaders the confidence that they will be able to bridge 2019’s margin and wrest the seat from the Congress.
Many BJP leaders also say that Mr. Nakul Nath “does not connect” with people like his father does, and believe that this will benefit the ruling party.
“People here understand two things. One is that Nakul Nath is not like his father, and the other that even Kamal Nath does not hold the same power now for Chhindwara’s development. Nobody will deny his contribution here but all the infrastructure you see here is from before 2014, when he was in power (at the Centre), and people want to move with time,” Anil Goyal, who switched from the Congress to the BJP about two years ago, said.
Once a lesser known tribal district, Chhindwara today boasts of attractive infrastructure with a smooth highway network, branded showrooms and fancy restaurants.
In the past one month, Mr. Kamal Nath has not missed any opportunity to remind people that he “dedicated his life for the development of Chhindwara”.
However, barely 30 km from the town, Chimauwa village is connected to the highway with a broken road, and lacks basic amenities, including drinking water supply and a middle school.
“Leaders of both parties come and make big promises around the elections but my entire village is dependent on one hand pump for drinking water. For other purposes, we have to get water from the pond (pointing to one about 500-metre downhill),” Ramkali Vishwakarma, a tribal woman in the village, said.
Chhindwara, which has become synonymous to Mr. Kamal Nath over the years, is all set to witness a fierce contest as it will decide what his legacy and his son’s political future look like.
