On Chhindwara, Kamal Nath's Turf, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister's Big Claim

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav on Monday expressed his confidence over winning former Chief Minister Kamal Nath's stronghold Chhindwara seat saying they had won the Chhindwara seat only the result was awaited now.

Chhindwara went to poll in the first phase on April 19 along with five other parliamentary seats - Sidhi, Shahdol, Jabalpur, Mandla and Balaghat in the state.

"We are nearing the second phase of elections and nominations for the third and the fourth phases have started. Today, I am going to Malwa- Shajapur and Ujjain. We will not rest until the last vote is cast. The current Prime Minister Narendra Modi is going to increase our excitement and enthusiasm especially when we have resolved to win 29 out of 29 seats in Madhya Pradesh," CM Yadav said.

"Chhindwara which was our minus seat in the previous two Lok Sabha elections, now I can say that we have won the Chhindwara seat, only the result is awaited now," he added.

During the 2014 general elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won 27 seats out of 29 parliamentary seats in the state while the Congress party managed to win two Guna and Chhindwara seats.

Similarly, in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the BJP won 28 and Congress party managed to win only one Chhindwara seat in the state.

Chhindwara is a hot seat in the state and Congress had held the seat for over 70 years barring a short period of time between 1997 and 1998. Besides, Kamal Nath or his family members have been ruling the seat for the last 44 years since 1980. But in 1997, veteran BJP leader and former CM Sunderlal Patwa defeated Nath by election though Kamal Nath again won the Chhindwara seat in 1998.

Chhindwara is considered a stronghold of Kamal Nath and the former CM's son Nakul Nath is contesting from the seat and it was the only seat that the grand old party managed to win in the previous 2019 general elections in the state.

Nakul Nath is contesting again from the Chhindwara seat against BJP candidate Vivek Bunty Sahu, who had lost to Kamal Nath in the last two assembly polls.

The BJP already showed in the recently conducted assembly polls that it has an upper advantage in the Hindi heartland states. In the 2019 elections, Congress leader Nakul Nath got a total of 47.1 per cent of vote share whereas the defeated BJP candidate touched 44.1 per cent.

Polling for the Lok Sabha in Madhya Pradesh will be conducted in four phases, with the next three phases of voting scheduled for April 26, May 7 and May 13. The counting of votes has been scheduled for June 4.

Madhya Pradesh has a total of 29 Lok Sabha constituencies, making it the sixth-largest state in terms of members it sends to the Lower House. Of these, 10 seats are reserved for SC and ST candidates, while the remaining 19 are unreserved.

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