Chhindwara (Madhya Pradesh): The Chhindwara Lok Sabha seat is one of the high profiles seats in the country. The first election was held on this Lok Sabha seat in 1952 and in the last 72 years, a resident of Chhindwara district has never been elected as an MP from this seat.
In the first Lok Sabha elections held in 1952, Raichand Bhai Shah, a resident of Gujarat, became an MP from Congress. He defeated independent candidate Pannalal Bhargava. Raichand Bhai Shah was born in Gagwa village of Jamnagar district of Gujarat.
Two leaders of Maharashtra have also become MPs from Chhindwara
In the general elections of 1957 and 1962, Bhikulal Chandak of the Indian National Congress won the elections. For the first time, he defeated Gauri Shankar Sharma of Prajatantrik Socialist Party and Samprasad Sant Kumar Mukherjee in 1962. In 1967 Lok Sabha polls, Congress fielded Gargi Shankar Mishra of Nagpur, who became MP by defeating HS Aggarwal of Jan Sangh in 1967. Purushottam Gupta of Jan Sangh in 1971 and Pratulchandra Dwivedi of Bharatiya Lok Dal in 1977 were elected as MPs.
Kamal Nath's family has been in possession since 1980
It was former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi who brought Kamal Nath to Chhindwara and called him her "third son". Kamal Nath was the MP of Chhindwara till 1996. In 1996, Congress cancelled the ticket of Kamal Nath and fielded his wife Alka Nath from Chhindwara and she also won the election. After this, Kamal Nath was the MP of Chhindwara continuously from 1998 to 2019. In 2019, Kamal Nath's son Nakul Nath won the Lok Sabha elections from Chhindwara on Congress ticket. Kamal Nath's family is originally from Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh.
BJP had won the seat in 1997, even then the candidate was an outsider. Only in the Lok Sabha by-election held in 1997, BJP defeated Kamal Nath. The former Chief Minister who defeated Kamal Nath in the elections was Sunderlal Patwa, who was a resident of the Neemuch district of Madhya Pradesh.
Kamal Nath is telling about the relationship of 44 years, BJP responds
Kamal Nath, who has been doing politics in Chhindwara for the last 44 years, says that he gets elected because of love and blessings of the people of Chhindwara. He says that even though he is a resident of Kanpur, Chhindwara is his real family. "Now the people here will choose a local person, who will always be with them in happiness and sorrow. The public will elect such a person to fulfil Prime Minister Narendra Modi's guarantee," a local BJP leader said.
