Chhindwara (MP): Madhya Pradesh Congress president and former chief minister Kamal Nath on Thursday filed his nomination as the grand old party's candidate from Chhindwara seat - his pocket borough - for the next month's assembly elections. The 76-year-old leader filed the nomination at 2.30 pm, after offering prayers at a Ram temple here.
Priests had advised Nath to file his nomination during the 'Amrit Muhurat' (auspicious time) as per the Hindu Panchang. Accordingly, he submitted the papers at 2.30 pm, local priest Pandit Manohar told PTI. "Earlier, Nath ji used to file his nomination papers around 11 am," he added. In the run-up to the assembly polls, the state unit of the Congress headed by Nath is being seen to be heavily relying on auspicious days and time to carry out important tasks.
Talking to PTI, MP Congress media cell chief K K Mishra said, "We declared our first list of 144 candidates for MP polls at 9.9 am on the very first day of Navratri, which is auspicious. If we add 1, 4, 4 it comes to 9, which is a lucky number."
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has fielded Bunty Sahu against Nath. The Congress leader had defeated Sahu by a margin of more than 25,000 in the by-election to the Chhindwara assembly constituency in 2019. Talking to reporters after filing the nomination papers, Nath who is leading the party in the centrally-located state, told reporters that the people of Madhya Pradesh and Chhindwara will shower their blessing on the Congress.
In the run-up to the polls, Nath had already organised sermons of two prominent Hindu preachers Pandit Dhirendra Shastri and Pandit Pradeep Mishra. Shastri, who advocates for Hindu Rashtra, had praised Nath for building more than 102-feet tall Hanuman temple in Chhindwara. Nath had represented the Chhindwara Lok Sabha constituency for eight times. After becoming the chief minister in 2018, he had contested the assembly by-election after Congress MLA Deepak Saxena resigned from Chhindwara to make way for Nath to fight the polls.
The government led by Kamal Nath, which was formed in December 2018, lasted only 15 months as it collapsed in March 2020 after several MLAs loyal to Jyotiraditya Scindia quit the Congress and joined the BJP. The development paved the way for the saffron party's return to power in the state with Shivraj Singh Chouhan becoming the chief minister once again. Elections to the 230-member Madhya Pradesh assembly will be held on November 17, and the counting of votes will be taken up on December 3.
