Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister nominee from Congress Kamal Nath on Saturday said he would contest assembly polls from his home turf Chhindwara but he was yet to decide which seat from the district. According to rules, Kamalnath Nath, a Lok Sabha MP from Chhindwara will have to get elected to the MP Assembly within six months of holding any ministerial office.
The district comprises seven Assembly seats out which four – Amarwara (ST), Parasia (SC), Junnardeo (SC) and Pandhurna (ST) – are reserved for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, making Nath ineligible to contest from those seats. The Remaining three seats in the district – Chhindwara, Saunsar, and Chourai are left for general candidates where Kamal Nath would be eyeing to contest.
Of the seven seats in Chhindwara district, only three are unreserved. I had told the party that I would contest from the seat from where the Congress won with the largest margin (in the 2018 polls),” Nath told Saturday.
Incidentally, the seat in Chhindwara district from where the Congress won with the widest margin of 20,742 votes is Saunsar, which is also where Nath’s home is located and from where he is listed as a voter.
The nine-time Lok Sabha member from Chhindwara, Nath, was named as the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh on Thursday. He will take oath as MP Chief Minister on Monday.
Earlier this week on Tuesday, In a nail-biter, The Congress secured 114 seats in the recently concluded Madhya Pradesh Assembly Elections, falling two short of the majority in the 230-seat Assembly. However, help came in the form of both BSP and SP extending support. BSP Supremo Mayawati on Wednesday extends its support to the Congress in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan in a bid to keep BJP away from power. Former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and Samajwadi Party Chief Akhilesh Yadav also extend its support to Congress. The two have 2 and 1 seat respectively in the Assembly.