Will BJP wresting Chhindwara crumble Kamal Nath family's political clout in MP?

Bhopal: Six months after the Congress in Madhya Pradesh suffered a humiliating defeat in the Assembly elections under the leadership of former Chief Minister Kamal Nath, his son Nakul Nath has now been defeated from family bastion Chhindwara in the Lok Sabha polls, triggering many unanswered questions in the state, including on the standing of the father-son duo.

Political observers feel that losing Chhindwara, where Kamal Nath scripted victories over a dozen times in the past four decades, may have a crumbling effect on the family's political clout in the region.

Despite being a seasoned politician with national reach, it is alleged that Kamal Nath's political career remained largely confined to Chhindwara, even when he was the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh for 15 months.

In 2018, Kamal Nath (77) handed over the charge of Chhindwara to his son Nakul Nath, who was elected to the Lok Sabha from there in 2019. However, five years later, the local party workers and the constituency's voters seem to have rejected him.

Deepak Saxena, the once trusted aide of Kamal Nath who severed ties with the Nath family ahead of the Lok Sabha elections and joined the BJP, had accused Nakul Nath of ruining the party and disrespecting the senior party leaders in Chhindwara.

"The humiliating defeat in the Assembly elections last year followed by the political drama that unfolded with rumours of the father-son duo's possible shift to the BJP not just upset the Congress high command and the state party cadres, but also dented Kamal Nath's credibility," a Congress leader said on condition of on anonymity.

A senior journalist said Kamal Nath knew that his son would not be given the same space in state politics as him, so he vacated Chhindwara for Nakul Nath.

In the Lok Sabha elections, Vivek 'Bunty' Sahu of the BJP defeated Nakul Nath in Chhindwara, the only seat the party failed to win in 2019, by 1,13,618 votes.

"The loss in Chhindwara has put a question mark on Nakul Nath's political future. While it is too early to say that he can't make a comeback, the drama that unfolded after the Assembly elections has definitely put a question mark on his credibility," the senior journalist said.

On counting day on June 4, when Kamal Nath joined state Congress chief Jitu Patwari in the monitoring room at the party headquarters, many Congress cadres were surprised because the veteran leader was not seen much in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections, even though Chhindwara went to the polls in the first phase on April 19.

To recall, Kamal Nath won the first Lok Sabha elections from Chhindwara in 1980 and since then he made the seat his strong base.

He won as many as nine general elections from Chhindwara, while his wife Alka Nath also represented this constituency once before their son Nakul Nath won from there in 2019.