BHOPAL: Loyalists continue to desert former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Kamal Nath in his bastion Chhindwara ahead of Lok Sabha polls.
In a fresh jolt, Chhindwara’s mayor Vikram Ahake, joined the ruling BJP in Bhopal on Monday. The development happened three days after one of the seven sitting Congress MLAs of Chhindwara LS constituency – the third-time Amarwara-ST legislator Kamlesh Shah quit the Congress and Vidhan Sabha membership before joining the BJP along with his wife Madhavi Shah.
Importantly, Ahake is the second Congress mayor from MP to have joined BJP. Earlier, in February, the Jabalpur mayor Jagat Bahadur Singh ‘Annu’ had quit the Congress and joined BJP.
The political development on Monday was significant, as 34-year-old Ahake, the graduate farmer whose mother is an Anganwadi worker – had drawn praise from former Congress president Rahul Gandhi and party’s national general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on winning the Chhindwara mayor polls in 2022.
Ahake said he joined the BJP impressed by the development- oriented policies of PM Narendra Modi and MP CM Dr Mohan Yadav.
I’m confident that BJP candidate Vivek Sahu ‘Bunty’ will defeat the sitting Congress MP Nakul Nath this time in Chhindwara,” he said.
Before Ahake and the Amarwara-ST MLA, other Kamal Nath loyalists, including state Congress spokesperson Syed Jafar have joined the BJP. Kamal Nath’s close associate, the ex-MP minister Deepak Saxena’s son Ajay Saxena has also joined the Congress. Deepak Saxena had also quit the Congress, however, he hasn’t joined the BJP till now.
On tje other hand, key sources in Kamal Nath’s camp in Chhindwara, are confident that these political switchovers will have no effect on the outcome in Chhindwara, which since 1980 has been won nine times by Kamal Nath, once by his wife Alka Nath and once by son Nakul Nath.
“Instead of indulging in this psychological warfare, the BJP should focus on ground zero, where in many assembly segments they don’t even have workers at polling booths. Merely indulging in publicity gimmicks will serve no purpose,” a Congress leader camping in Chhindwara told this newspaper.
The same Congress leader claimed that just like the Jabalpur mayor, the Chhindwara mayor was left with no option, but to join the BJP, as the state government isn’t giving enough funds to Congress ruled municipal corporations in the state.
Meanwhile, reacting to political switchovers by the Congress leaders from Chhindwara, the former CM Kamal Nath said “Since 45 years, I’m on a tapasya to transform Chhindwara into a totally developed region. Chhindwara for me is karmabhoomi and tapobhoomi both. But the BJP is turning it into a battlefield of money and muscle power. Political leaders are being coerced, the people of the entire Chhindwara LS constituency are patiently watching everything and will teach those attacking Chhindwara now, a befitting lesson in the election.”