lok-sabha-elections

Updated: Apr 04, 2019 16:18 IST

The Congress on Thursday fielded Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath’s son Nakul Nath from the Chhindwara Lok Sabha constituency. The chief minister will also contest the assembly bypoll from Chhindwara constituency.

The party declared a list of 12 Lok Sabha candidates for Madhya Pradesh. With this the total number of Lok Sabha seats on which the Congress has declared its candidates has reached 369.

Kamal Nath has represented the Chhindwara constituency nine times in the Lok Sabha, making him the senior-most member of the 15th Lok Sabha. Nakul Nath is a product of Doon School like his father. He later earned his Master of Business Administration degree from Boston University in USA.

Nakul Nath’s first serious foray into politics was seen in 1996, when he is said to have played a major role in his mother Alka Nath’s victory from Chhindwara.

Chhindwara goes to polls on April 29. It is considered to be a safe seat for the Congress. Between 1980 and 2014, Kamal Nath lost only once - in the bypoll of 1997 - from Chhindwara.

In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, when the Narendra Modi wave swept through the state and the BJP won 27 of the 29 seats, Chhindwara was one of the two seats that the Congress had won. The other seat was Guna, represented by Jyotiraditya Scindia.

Besides Nakul Nath, the Congress has named Congress Working Committee member and Madhya Pradesh unit chief Arun Yadav and Vivek Tankha as party candidates in the Lok Sabha elections.

Yadav has been nominated from Khandwa Lok Sabha seat while Vivek Tankha has been given ticket from Jabalpur parliamentary constituency.

Other Congress candidates declared in the latest list are Prabhusingh Thakur from Sagar, Pratap Singh Lodhi from Damoh, Raja Ram Tripathi from Satna, Siddharth Tiwari from Rewa, Ajay Singh Rahul from Sidhi, Kamal Maravi from Mandla, Prahlad Tipaniya from Dewas, Babulal Malviya from Ujjain and Dr Govind Muzaalda from Khargone.