Chhindwara LS Polls 2024 Result: BJP Succeeds In Breaching Congress Citadel As Its Candidate Defeats Nakul Nath

Chhindwara Election 2024 LIVE Result: The Chhindwara Lok Sabha seat on Tuesday witnessed a major shift in its political alignment when incumbent MP Nakul Nath, the son of veteran Congress leader and former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath, lost the ongoing Lok Sabha polls to BJP candidate Vivek Bunty Sahu by a margin of 1,13,618 votes. To give a context of Congress's grip on Chhindwara, it is pertinent to mention that the seat has only had one non-Congress MP since its formation in 1952.

In the 1997 by-polls, BJP leader and two-time former Madhya Pradesh CM Sunder Lal Patwa became the only candidate to ever defeat Kamal Nath in Chhindwara. However, in the regular Lok Sabha polls held the next year, Kamal Nath regained his lost bastion and went on to become the only leader to represent the seat as its Lok Sabha representative until 2019, when he gave way for Nakul to contest it, which the latter did successfully.

The BJP, with the aim of breaching the Congress citadel this time, fielded Vivek Bunty Sahu as its candidate from Chhindwara. However, a controversy erupted in Chhindwara just days before the seat went to the polls in the first phase. On April 15, just days before the first phase-polling in Chhindwara, a police team arrived at Kamal Nath's Chhindwara residence and interrogated the veteran leader's close aide RK Miglani, who was booked by Madhya Pradesh Police alongside a journalist for allegedly conspiring to circulate a fake video showing Sahu in an objectionable condition with a woman.

(With inputs from agencies)