On the day of polling in the high-profile Chhindwara Lok Sabha seat in Madhya Pradesh on Friday, the city's mayor Vikram Ahake, who recently joined the Bharatiya Janata Party, urged people to vote for Congress' Nakul Nath.
The Congress on Tuesday announced its second list of 43 candidates for the Lok Sabha polls, fielding Kamal Nath's son Nakul Nath once again from Madhya Pradesh's Chhindwara and Ashok Gehlot's son Vaibhav Gehlot from Rajasthan's Jalore.
Nakul Nath's move has added fuel to rumours swirling for the last few days that he, along with his father, are defecting to the Bharatiya Janata Party.
With many of his close associates leaving his side, it is virtually a lone battle for Congress stalwart Kamal Nath to help his parliamentarian son Nakul Nath win from Chhindwara for a second time amid the Bharatiya Janata Party's aggressive push to wrest the seat.
Asked why Nath was not himself putting forth his side, Patwari said that the MP chief minister would speak at the right time. "What I said was on his behalf," he claimed.
Political circles were abuzz on Saturday amid speculation that former Madhya Pradesh chief minister and veteran Congress leader Kamal Nath may join the Bhartiya Janata Party.
Verma said Kamal Nath and his son Nakul Nath are both not crossing over to the BJP and asserted that the latter will contest the Lok Sabha polls, likely to be held in April-May, from Chhindwara in Madhya Pradesh as the Congress candidate.
Three of these MLAs are from Chhindwara, while another three from the region are set to leave for Delhi, sources close to the veteran leader said.
The party also announced that Kamal Nath will contest the bypoll for the Chhindwara assembly constituency.
Days after his Delhi visit led to speculation about plans to join the Bharatiya Janata Party, Congress veteran Kamal Nath on Friday took to social media to drum up support for 'our leader' Rahul Gandhi's Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra which will enter Madhya Pradesh next month.
The figure, mentioned in his affidavit filed along with the nomination papers, is over five times the assets of his parents, which as per MP CM Nath's affidavit stood at over Rs 124 crore.
Kamal Nath held the Chhindwara Lok Sabha seat as many as nine times and it continues to remain with the family as his son Nakul Nath is currently an MP from there.
Asked if he is joining the BJP, Nath said, "If there would be any such thing, I would inform you first."
Welcoming them into the BJP fold, Chief Minister Mohan Yadav cryptically said many people are feeling anxious and they will eventually join the saffron party in the coming days.
The Congress' strength in the 230-member MP assembly came down to 65 after Shah's exit.
In the video, Nath was talking to Raghuvanshi's supporters when he made the remarks about former CM Digvijaya Singh and his son.
Out of the candidates announced so far, 65 are below the age of 50 years and 19 are women, he said.
A number of high-profile electoral battles, starring veterans and debutants, formidable opponents and unlikely contestants, feature in Tuesday's outcome.
Moveable assets accounted for 46 per cent of the wealth of the 10 richest candidates in the first phase of the 2024 elections.
Out of the sitting MPs with serious criminal cases against them, nine face murder cases. The analysis revealed that five of these MPs belong to the BJP.
The BJP has not projected any chief ministerial face in the 2023 assembly elections.
It is clear that Kamal Nath is gearing up for the 2023 assembly polls, reports Sandeep Kumar.
It was a mixed outing for super rich candidates as five of them emerged victorious and an equal number suffered defeat in the Lok Sabha polls.
Senior Madhya Pradesh Congress leader Kamal Nath on Tuesday asked whether it is needed to say separately that India is a 'Hindu Rashtra' given the fact that 82 per cent of Hindus live in the country.
Lok Sabha constituencies that sprung a surprise in the 2024 polls.
With all 29 under its belt, the BJP became the first political party to achieve such a feat after 40 years in Madhya Pradesh.
Eight Union ministers, two former chief ministers and one ex-governor are among those who are set to test their electoral fate in the first phase of elections on April 19 when 102 seats across 21 states and Union territories will go to polls.
With this, the total number of MPs suspended for unruly behaviour from the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha stands at an unprecedented 146 since December 14.
These include key constituencies held by Opposition parties such as Uttar Pradesh's Rae Bareli (Sonia Gandhi, Congress) and Mainpuri (Mulayam Singh Yadav, SP); Maharashtra's Baramati (Supriya Sule, Nationalist Congress Party); West Bengal's Jadhavpur (Mimi Chakraborty, TMC); Telangana's Mahabubnagar (Srinivas Reddy, TRS) and Madhya Pradesh's Chhindwara (Nakul Nath, Congress).
Forty-two of the 102 Lok Sabha seats going to polls in the general election's first phase are constituencies that have three or more candidates facing criminal cases, according to a poll rights body.
943 candidates are contesting 71 seats spread across 9 states.
Congress had won won in the assembly polls barely five months ago in the same three states -- Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan.
The BJP, which has allied with a few smaller parties, has sought to upend the state's conventional politics, which has so far been indifferent to Hindutva politics, by taking the ruling DMK head-on for its alleged insult of Sanatan Dharma besides involvement in corruption.
The BJP won 28 of the 29 Lok Sabha seats in the state. Congress was able to hold on to just one seat -- Chhindwara.
He said the people of the state took a historic decision in 2003 by removing the government of "Mr Bantadhar", apparently referring to senior Congress leader and former chief minister Digvijaya Singh.
"Nathji should take the moral responsibility for the defeat as he is chief minister and mostly importantly the state party chief as well," a Congress leader said.
The new Lok Sabha will have 300 MPs who have been elected for the first time to the Lower House.
A mix of industrialists and businessmen, who have inherited riches or rose from humble backgrounds and even endured boom and bust cycles, the top five MPs are illustrative of how the political stock of the wealthy is increasing rapidly.
The Bhopal seat is currently held by Alok Sanjar of the BJP.
The fate of 961 candidates, including Union ministers Giriraj Singh, Subhash Bhamre, S S Ahluwalia and Babul Supriyo of the BJP and former Union ministers Salman Khurshid and Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury of the Congress, will be decided by about 12.79 core voters in the fourth phase.
