Bhopal: In a bid to wrest the Chhindwara seat in Madhya Pradesh, held by Kamal Nath’s family for almost 44 years, from Congress in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, BJP on Wednesday inducted a fresh batch of 40 leaders of the grand old party from the area in its fold.
Those who crossed over to BJP from Congress included former MLA Choudhury Gambhir Singh, known as a close aide of the Congress veteran Mr Nath.
A week ago, two dozen Congress leaders of Chhindwara including seven elected members of Chhindwara Municipal Corporation had joined BJP.
“This is a part of our strategy to weaken the Congress in Chhindwara and wrest the seat from the party in the ensuing LS elections”, BJP’s Chhindwara district unit chief Bunty Sahul told this newspaper.
BJP had won 28 out of 29 seats in the last LS polls in MP, losing the lone seat of Chhindwara to Congress then.
BJP has set a target to make a clean sweep of the upcoming LS polls in MP by winning all 29 seats.
According to Mr Sahu, the party has set a target to woo 50,000 Congress workers of Chhindwara into the BJP fold ahead of the LS polls.
Chhindwara LS seat has been held by Mr Nath’s family for the last 44 years barring a brief period of one year in 1997 when BJP veteran and former chief minister Sunderlal Patwa won it in a by-election.
BJP fancies a chance to wrest the seat from Congress in the upcoming polls with the winning margin of the Congress seen shrinking significantly in the last two LS elections.
The winning margin of the Congress in the seat was 1,16,537 in 2014 LS polls which came down to 34,953 votes in the 2019 elections.
Mr. Nath had held the seat nine times earlier before vacating it for his son Nakul in the 2019 LS polls after he became chief minister of MP in 2018.
Sources said that Congress leadership was toying with the idea of fielding Nath, instead of his son, in the seat to retain it in the polls. However, the party has reportedly yielded to pressure by Mr Nath to retain his son in the seat this time.
“We are going to win Chhindwara this time. It hardly matters to us if Mr Kamal Nath or his son is fielded in the seat by Congress”, senior BJP leader and state minister Kailash Vijayvargiya said.
Mr Vijayvargiya is the cluster in-charge of the party for Mahakoshal region under which Chhindwara falls, in the ensuing LS polls.
Mr Nath meanwhile started a five-day tour of Chhindwara on Wednesday to campaign for his son in the constituency.
