He has won eight elections, and is trying his luck again from Chhindhwara, in Madhya Pradesh. On the campaign trail, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kamal Nath discounts a Narendra Modi wave.
Despite being close to the RSS headquarters of Nagpur, Chhindhwara, one of the key constituencies in Madhya Pradesh, has rarely disappointed the Congress.
Kamal Nath, the Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister, is seeking his ninth term.
In 34 years, the Congress stalwart has won seven times and lost once from this constituency which has over 34 per cent tribal population and has become synonymous with sending him to Parliament.
However, those who have covered the constituency since the 1990s find a change in the public mood. More BJP flags are seen now, as the party in the 2008 and 2013 assembly elections won four out of the seven assembly segments.
In the assembly elections last November, the BJP lead aggregate of votes in all the assembly segments by nearly 66,000 votes. Can Nath overturn this leadIJ
Strangely the BJP key campaigner and prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi has kept away from Chhindwara while Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has focused on this constituency.
Modi’s absence is ostensibly due to paucity of time. But party sources say Modi could have been inhibited by Nath’s relations with fellow industrialist Adani who is known to be backing the BJP's star candidate.
Asked if this election was tough Kamal Nath quipped, “Which election is notIJ” And for obvious reasons, he does not see a Modi wave in the region. Chouhan has tried to make up for Modi’s absence with his intensive campaign. He addressed six meetings in the constituency.
Those who credit Chouhan for the BJP’s stellar performance in the assembly elections instead of Modi, will closely watch the result as a reflection of the the two leaders’ influence.
A hawala case had kept Kamal Nath out forcing his wife to contest. After his name was cleared in the case, Alka Nath had resigned resulting in a bye-election in 1997, which Nath lost to BJP stalwart and former Chief Minister Sunderlal Patwa. He wrested the seat back back from BJP in 1998.
Nath keeps his poise as he had won the previous elections, by a margin of over 1.21 lakh votes, against BJP’s Marotrao Khavse. Though there were 28 candidates in the field the top two garnered 84 per cent votes with him securing nearly 50 per cent. BJP's candidate Chandrabhan Singh, a sitting local MlA, is optimistic that Chouhan’s good governance will help him win.
Singh unsuccessfully contested against Kamal Nath in 1991 and then against his wife Alka Nath in 1996.