MP Congress chief Kamal Nath leads in Chhindwara bastion, but party set to lose state to BJP

According to initial trends, the former chief minister was ahead of BJP rival Vivek Bunty Sahu by over 15,000 votes.

New Delhi: Madhya Pradesh Congress chief Kamal Nath was leading by over 15,000 votes in his Chindwara seat Sunday afternoon, though incumbent BJP is set to storm back to power in the state.

Chhindwara is Nath’s bastion, and the BJP had hoped to lure voters with a young face. However, the party’s candidate, 44-year-old Vivek Bunty Sahu, was trailing after nine rounds of counting.

Nath, a veteran Congress leader, who has been a former chief minister, has won every election from Chhindwara since 1990. Since the beginning of the party’s campaign in the state, Nath had also projected himself as the chief ministerial face of the party.

According to early trends, the BJP was leading in 150 seats in the 230-member Madhya Pradesh assembly, while the Congress was leading in 69.

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In the 2018 assembly election, the Congress had emerged as the single-largest party with 114 seats and managed to form government under Nath.

In 2020, then MP deputy chief minister Jyotiraditya Scindia walked out of the government and joined the BJP, marking the end of Kamal Nath’s short tenure as CM.

The BJP, on the other hand, has ruled the state for two decades – except the 15 months in between, from 2018 to 2020 – and the 2023 victory will make it the party’s fourth stint in power. Incumbent Shivraj Singh Chouhan has been chief minister for all three previous terms.

Also read: How MP’s ‘Mama’ Shivraj Singh Chouhan, under siege from within, turned things around for BJP