For the Naths, Polls in Madhya Pradesh's Chhindwara Are a Mere Formality

Chhindwara: In Madhya Pradesh, Chhindwara was among the only two seats that the Congress won in 2014 in the state. For the past 40 years, Kamal Nath has remained unbeaten from this constituency – barring once – due to a combination of good work, zealously guarding the borders of the constituency and employing clever realpolitik of co-opting the leadership of both parties.

It is said that Nath decides who his opponent will be, and then goes on to decimate him.

At least this is what the BJP has been facing. For years it has fielded Chandrabhan Singh Choudhary against Nath, and he has loyally lost by healthy margins, ensuring that no new candidate or leader emerges.

This is the first election in which two Naths are in the fray. Kamal Nath’s son Nakul is contesting the Lok Sabha elections while the father has been relegated to contesting the Vidhan Sabha after having made long-term loyalist Deepak Saxena vacate his seat for him.

In Shikarpur, some eight kilometres outside Chhindwara, where the Naths live, all that has changed is that their house has a new nameplate – which reads, Kamal Nath, chief minister of Madhya Pradesh.

A blue chopper is parked in the compound and those present include journalists he is scheduled to meet, ones he has approved. Others who are milling around the two-building posh campus are mostly locals, keen to show their face and register their presence.

Nath then emerges from his residence and waves at the waiting journalists. He fields a few routine questions before driving to his chopper, waiting about 200 metres away. If he had walked that length, it would have given some extra time for interaction to those who had been waiting for nearly two hours.

But that’s Kamal Nath for you – imperious in his fiefdom and unbeatable.

Also read: Tribal Village Adopted by Javadekar in MP’s Chhindwara is All Set to Vote for Congress

Elections are merely a chance for him to stamp his authority and visit villages he is unable to cover when busy with governance. Though this election comes in the shadow of Income Tax raids on his close associates R.K. Miglani and Pravin Kakkar, it has left him undeterred. He wasn’t questioned about the rate, and at any rate, the matter did not concern him personally. Additionally, the raids failed to produce anything substantive except a piece of paper with some calculations on it amounting to Rs 281 crore, according to the IT department.

The BJP machinery grabbed on to that figure and tried to project that Rs 281 crore was being collected for the elections. During his public meeting at Jabalpur, Prime Minister Narendra Modi tried playing up that figure, claiming how he had collected such amounts within three months of coming to power.

Nath hit back in Chhindwara, asking him to explain how Rs 700 crore was collected to make the BJP office and who was funding the massive election expenditure of the BJP.

Also read: In 2019, Is BJP Riding a Modi Wave or a Money Wave?

Whatever Nath’s politics, Chhindwara definitely stands as a model for the development of small towns. Hundreds of smart cities promised by Modi don’t hold a candle to how well-curated and developed the town with a population of about 1.5 lakh is. The roads that Modi inaugurates and drives down waving at imaginary television crowds, are nothing compared to the well laid out ones within and outside Chhindwara. The drainage, parking spaces, electrification and domestic water supply in the town fulfil one’s vision of how it should be.

There is a medical college, call centres, degree colleges, a food design institute, an industrial area with some 55 working factories and markets and mandis. Everything from irrigation to electrification to rail lines is well-planned, though at the moment the train frequency and connectivity from Chhindwara is negligible. The government departments, installations and maintenance is top of the line with some of the best officers ready to work and stay in Chhindwara as it has always been a prize posting irrespective of who rules Bhopal.

At the Nath residence, one runs into former CM Shivraj’s brother-in-law, Sanjay Masani. He belongs to neighbouring Gondia and joined Congress just ahead of the assembly elections some six months ago. He is now a permanent fixture in the Nath household. He had contested on a Congress ticket from one of the Chhindwara assembly segments and lost. But he is important enough for even Miglani to call him Sanjay bhaiya. His importance lies in his insider knowledge of the BJP network and plans in the region. He is also believed to be a link between the present and past chief ministers.

The fact that Naths will sail through is not being doubted by anyone, and if the names of their opponents cannot be located here, Google ‘Nathan Shah’ and ‘Bunty Sahu’ – they are as insignificant in this contest as the information about them on the internet.