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Journalism of Courage
A team of senior Congress leaders, including former general secretaries, youth presidents and councillors, have taken a break from politics and are enjoying a game of cricket at the Indira Gandhi Cricket Stadium in Madhya Pradesh’s Chhindwara district, where posters of Kamal Nath and his son Nakul Nath dominate the landscape.
Adding that it is wrong to proclaim the Congress’s demise, he says: “The BJP has its eyes set on Chhindwara… They can try to break us, but the Chhindwara Congress shines when our backs are against the wall.”
Right now, that wall seems pretty shaky. In recent days, the BJP claims to have weaned away 4,500 Congress workers from across the state to its side, including district presidents, mayors, sarpanchs – 1,500 of them in Chhindwara alone, which significantly was the sole parliamentary constituency that the BJP did not win in 2019.
Against this backdrop, rumours spread like wildfire about a fortnight ago that Kamal Nath, the state Congress chief, and Nakul, the Chhindwara MP, were joining the queue out the party door. Media parked itself for several days outside the Delhi house of the 77-year-old Congress leader – a nine-time MP, former CM and a party veteran since Sanjay Gandhi days – in anticipation.
Kamal Nath was said to be smarting from the Congress central leadership’s rap to him over the Madhya Pradesh Assembly poll loss, as well as the denial of a Rajya Sabha nomination.
The defection did not come to pass eventually, for reasons that remain unclear. On Tuesday, Kamal Nath said the rumours were all a media creation. Earlier, senior BJP leader and Madhya Pradesh minister Kailash Vijayvargiya said the party had no need for Kamal Nath, who carries with him the baggage of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots and Emergency.
This means that, as of now, the unsparing BJP is set to focus all its energies on wresting Chhindwara, which has been dominated by Kamal Nath – and by extension the Congress – since he first won an election from here in the 1980s.
In its tribal-dominated surroundings, the Chhindwara district stands out for all its trappings of modernity, which come with having VIP links going back four decades. It has good rail connectivity and roads, and several skill development institutes and factories, including big names such as Raymond and Unilever.
Congress leaders claim the BJP will seek to dent the Chhindwara bastion by freezing its development. Chhindwara Mayor Vikram Ahake lists projects that have been “stalled”, starting with marriage halls and a library.
“Nakul Nath’s vision was to set up an education hub. The BJP has put the brakes on that, as well as Rs 481 crore for the upgrade of Raja Shankar Shah University. The medical college budget, assigned Rs 1,400 crore during Kamal Nath’s short tenure as CM, is now on hold, along with proposals to construct an agriculture and horticulture institute, a mini-airport and a 100-acre industrial area. Even Central government schemes are on hold,” Ahake claims.
A state government spokesperson denies allegations of stopping funds for Chhindwara. “If local politicians misuse the funds, then that is a cause for concern,” the spokesperson adds.
At Rajiv Bhavan, which serves as the Congress office, the party’s Chhindwara district president, Viswanath Okte, is sifting through some wedding invitation cards. Yes, Kamal Nath would attend the wedding, he assures a group of people, going on to emphasise the Congress leader’s connect with the people of the constituency.
“There is a bhandara (feast) in the BJP, and everyone is leaving. Let them go. What positions will they get there? Is their future secure? We are solely focused on Kamal Nath’s mission of activating booth-level workers. They will help us win, not the leaders who left,” he says.
Ironically, Congress leaders now in the BJP say it was insecurity about their future that drove their move. The decision of the Congress leadership to stay away from the Ayodhya Ram Temple consecration is cited by more than one leader as the main factor. Many say it will cause “a Congress wipeout in the Hindi belt”.
Local councillors, however, admit apprehension about the BJP government stopping funds for projects in their areas, or opening investigations into works.
On February 21, Chief Minister Mohan Yadav was himself in Chhindwara to lend his shoulder to the BJP push in the seat. Among the fresh group of Congress leaders who joined the BJP in his presence was Ujjawal Singh Thakur alias Ajju, a former Congress state general secretary and liquor businessman.
Apart from stalling of funds as a factor, Thakur too cites alienation from the local Congress.
Neeraj Patel, who had left the Congress after the party refielded incumbent MLA Sujeet Singh from Churai in the 2023 elections, cites both the party’s decision on the Ram Temple event and the “aloofness” of the Congress leadership.
“Kamal Nath promised me a ticket in 2018 and then asked me to ‘adjust’. In 2023, he again said the same… I have struggled for 15 years, but not got any reward. In politics, people can have ambitions,” Patel says, adding that “the exodus” has just started and more will leave.
Patel also questions the rise and rise of Nakul Nath. Pointing out that in the 2023 Assembly elections, Kamal Nath’s victory margin from the Chhindwara Assembly seat was low, he says: “Nakul does not work on the ground and is surrounded by middlemen. He still can’t identify good party workers after all these years. That will be his undoing.”
Akhilesh Shukla, a former Congress general secretary from Junnardeo, also says: “The top Congress leaders would not pay any attention to me. I was insulted on multiple occasions, not called for meetings. The local MLA was scared of my ambitions and wanted me out of the party.”
A councillor says it is natural for them to seek options. “There was pressure by the state government on me. They pointed out several irregularities… even if these did not amount to corruption. With our party already out of power and looking at five years more of the same, it is difficult for us to exist… I switched for the development of my ward.”
Anand Bakshi, a long-time Kamal Nath loyalist who is said to have been the brains behind the veteran’s aggressive foray into soft Hindutva before the elections, which didn’t earn any dividends, slams those leaving the Congress as “greedy”.
Ashish Tripathi, the leader watching the cricket match from the stands, asserts that the BJP’s induction of so many Congress leaders has in turn left fissures in its ranks. He gives the example of former Congress leader Vivek Bunty Sahu, now the BJP district president. During his Chhindwara visit, CM Yadav had singled out Sahu for praise for bringing Congress leaders to the BJP.
At the BJP local office, Sahu’s image now looms large, with him sharing the frame with his former mentor and ex-CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan in most photos. (In other parts of the state, the photos of the BJP’s long-serving CM have virtually vanished).
Sahu, who recently broke his left leg, is bustling around the party office walking with the help of a stick. He says there are two factors behind leaders leaving the Congress: “Ram” and “Modi”. Look at who stands in the opposite corner, Sahu adds. “Nakul Nath still holds his father’s finger to walk… Congress party workers are coming in droves, knocking at our door.”
BJP karyalaya mantri Alkesh Lamba claims Congress internal surveys have shown that Nakul Nath will lose. “That is why many of their leaders are jumping ship,” he says, adding that the belief that Kamal Nath was ready to join the BJP had “destroyed” his credibility. And that leaders who have long been suppressed by him are leaving for the BJP.
Above Lamba, on the first floor of the BJP office, preparations are on for the Lok Sabha polls. A call centre is buzzing, with over a dozen women working the phone lines, calling up voters and apprising them about BJP government schemes.
