Battleground Madhya Pradesh: Will BJP Be Able To Make A Dent In Kamal Nath’s Bastion Chhindwara?

Around 350 kms away from Madhya Pradesh’s capital Bhopal, the campaign song of an Adivasi party being played in an excessively loud sound sets the mood – ‘Ravan Bhaiya ko Jitana hai bhaiya’. Yellow scarfs, yellow headgears, chokers made of metal – commonly known as chik, tikli or the ornamental spot worn on the forehead made of turmeric and rice, beats of dholak and damru assert an Adivasi identity that is about to shape the fate of political parties in the state.

 Batkakhapa village of Chhindwara constituency is not a battleground only for BJP and Congress, rather the Adivasi-dominated region recites a new name as well – Devram (Ravan) Ballavi of Gondwara Ganatantra Party (GGP). Amidst the fanfare, people cheering and sloganeering – ‘Dekho Dekho Kaun Aya Sher Aya, Sher Aya’ – as Ravan enters the scene, the village elders rush to garland him. The humble Ravan bows his head down to touch their feet and says, “I am your son.” A veteran Adivasi villager Simru Inwati couldn’t hold his tears back: “How can we not choose our own people? This time no big figures like Kamal Nath or Nakul Nath – it is the turn of our son.”

Chhindwara is one of the six Adivasi-dominated constituencies in the Mahakoshal region that is going to polls in the first phase, on April 19. The other seats are Sidhi, Shahdol, Jabalpur, Balaghat and Mandla. As per different estimates, the Adivasi population in this region is more than 50% and hence, both the BJP and Congress have been trying to focus on Adivasi issues during the campaigns, says a political analyst.

A few days back, Rahul Gandhi during his rallies at Shahdol and Balaghat said that if the party comes to power, it would implement Sixth Schedule in this region. He also called out BJP for terming the indigenous people as ‘Vanavasis’ instead of Adivasis. BJP district leaders, nonetheless, debunked such promises as ‘false claims’ and said that it is the BJP that has been working for the marginalized communities. Evoking its successful implementation of Ujjwala Yojana, PMAY, ration for 80 crores people – among others – BJP emphasises Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas.

Against this backdrop, the fight in Chhindwara, Mandla and Balaghat becomes interesting. Chhindwara, known as Kamal Nath’s bastion where Nath family members never lost an election in 45 years, barring only 1997, is one of the star seats in the state. Even in the last assembly elections in 2023 when BJP gave a stellar performance winning 163 seats and reducing Congress to merely 66, the saffron party could not make a dent in Nath’s bastion. Congress won all of the seven seats that come under Nath’s constituency.

Immediately after the assembly elections, senior BJP leader and former Chief Minister of the state reached Chhindwara and while addressing a rally announced ‘Mission 29’- a promise to win 29 out of 29 seats in the state. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections even when the Modi wave swept the state and the ruling party got 28 seats, Nath-scion held on to Chhindwara.

However, for the last few months, things have not been well for Congress. According to the claims of local BJP leaders almost 12,000 leaders of the grand old party have jumped boat and joined BJP. Among them there are big names as well- former MLA of Chhindwara Deepak Saxena, the mayor of Chhindwara Vikram Ahakey and Amarwada’s MLA Kamalesh Shah.

Party insiders say that it is Kamal Nath’s ‘parivaarbad’ that led to massive discontent within the party. A senior leader of the party says, “Kamal Nath fought 2018 assembly elections from Chhindwara after removing sitting MLA Saxena. Definitely, he expected something as reward. But in 2019 Lok Sabha elections, instead of nominating him, he fielded his son from Chhindwara.”

The case of Kamalesh Shah, nonetheless, pertains to corruption allegations against him. A Congress veteran from Amarwada says, “He has been a feudal lord. He owns a huge palace. He was feared of the investigating agencies that he thought would snatch his properties.” Former Minister and national spokesperson of the party, Mukesh Nayek, nonetheless, believes that these people wouldn’t stand a chance without Kamal Nath. “If you consider Ahakey, he was nobody before he met Nath. It was Nath who made him a leader. Where would they go without the support of Nath?”

A major blow to the party came last month when there were rumours that Kamal Nath along with his son would join BJP. Though Nath cleared out the cloud soon saying that the BJP was trying to spread rumours, it had some impact on the ground. However, the messiah image of Nath continues to dominate the lanes of Chhindwara. At Dhanoura village, around 30 kilometres away from the hustle and bustle of the city, Ravinder Dahariya says, “For me, he is the god. When I got a very bad head injury last year, Nath bore the cost of the surgery. It was around Rs 6 lakh.” A village veteran intervenes, “You can find so many cases where Nath bore the cost of medical treatment of poor villagers.” Apart from that, he created an industrial area in Boregaon where around 10,000 villagers got work, says Nakul Nath in a rally. “Chhindwara is the only place where one can find seven Kendriya Vidyalayas,” Nath-scion adds.

However, BJP has trained its gun at Kamal Nath saying that he has turned Chhindwara into his family business. They have again fielded Vivek Bunty Sahu who was defeated by Nath in the 2023 assembly elections. Still, the party is banking on the popularity of Congress leaders who have joined the BJP. One of the BJP district-level leaders, Rohit says, “In Amarwada, 72 sarpanchs have joined BJP. And thus, we have the Adivasi support.” Amarwada segment is one of the major Adivasi-dominated assembly constituencies of Chhindwara.

Another major factor in favour of Sahu is his caste, says a BJP leader. Sonaram Sahu, a resident of Ubegaon village around 20 km away from the city says, “We would support our own people. He belongs to our community.”

Interestingly, in Chhindwara, the BJP is feared for something very unusual – the Nath duo’s financial dominance. “We don’t have enough money to combat them,” says Rohit. Nakul Nath is the richest candidate in the state with a declared wealth of Rs 716 crores.

On the other hand, Ravan of GGP is quite sure to defeat both Nath and Sahu. Addressing a rally of almost 1000 people at Batkakhapa, he roars, “You voted for Kamalesh Shah and he joined the BJP. You must have seen what happens when you choose someone who doesn’t belong to you.”

Last year, in the assembly elections Ballavi fought against Shah and former GGP leader Monika Batti who joined BJP before the polls and stood third. GGP had its best time during 2003 when the founder of the party and renowned Adivasi leader Hira Singh Markam became MLA. The party, nevertheless, couldn’t continue with the performance after 2010. Last assembly elections, they had an alliance with the BJP but this time Ravan is fighting alone.

The fight of Mandla also seems to be interesting where Union Minister and senior Adivasi leader Faggan Singh Kulaste is fighting against Congress leader Omkar Singh. Kulaste lost the assembly elections in 2023 giving Congress a fillip. “We think we will be able to repeat our performance this time as well,” says a Congress leader. In Balaghat, the grand old party is banking on the internal conflict of the BJP. It has fielded Bharti Pardhi, apparently a new face removing the sitting MP Dr. Dhal Singh Bisen. One of the BJP supporters, says, “Bisen worked a lot and they shouldn’t have removed him. We are not happy with the decision.”

Amidst these interesting contests in the Mahakoshal region, Chhindwara remains the centre of attraction. As these seats go to polls today, the question remains – will BJP be able to make a dent in the Nath bastion of Chhindwara?