BJP flag.
Credit: Reuters Photo
Bhopal: Following the BJP's victory in the Chhindwara Lok Sabha seat, which is Congress veteran Kamal Nath's home turf, the saffron party has now set its sights to capture Amarwara assembly segment, the bypoll for which will be held on July 10.
Notably, the BJP candidate from the Chhindwara Lok Sabha constituency secured a lead of over 15,000 votes in Amarwara seat in the recently held general elections.
The BJP has won all 29 Lok Sabha constituencies in Madhya Pradesh.
Historically, since 1972, the BJP has won the Amarwara (ST) seat, twice—in 1990 and 2008—while the Congress bagged it nine times. The Gondwana Gantantra Party (GGP), a tribal outfit, secured this constituency once in 2003.
The Amarwara assembly seat was won by Kamlesh Shah on a Congress ticket in the November 2023 elections when he defeated BJP nominee Monika Manmohan Shah Batti by a margin of 25,086 votes.
The byelection was necessitated after Kamlesh Shah, a three-time Congress MLA from Amarwara, resigned on March 29 this year and joined the ruling BJP soon after. Shah subsequently resigned from the state assembly.
The schedule for the byelection was announced by the Election Commission on Monday. The counting of votes will be taken up on July 13.
In the recent Lok Sabha elections, BJP candidate Banty Vivek Sahu defeated former Chhindwara MP and Congress candidate Nakul Nath by a margin of 1.13 lakh votes.
According to Election Commission data, the BJP secured 93,512 votes while Congress received 78,473 votes in the polling stations under the Amarwara assembly seat during the general elections, giving the BJP a lead of over 15,000 votes in this seat.
Political observers suggest that Kamlesh Shah, now with the BJP, is likely to be fielded by the saffron party for the Amarwara seat.
The election notification will be issued on June 14, with the last date for filing nomination papers being June 21.
The scrutiny of poll papers will be done on June 24, and the last date for withdrawing nomination papers is June 26.