BJP youth leader to take on Nath in Chhindwara Assembly bypoll

The BJP Saturday nominated 38-year-old Vivek Sahu to take on Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath for the Chhindwara Assembly bypoll and tribal leader Natthan Shah against Nath's son Nakul for the Lok Sabha polls there.

The MP CM is a nine-time parliamentarian from Chhindwara while his son will be making his poll debut.

The BJP also announced the candidatures of Vivek Sejwalkar and Mahendra Solanki for the Gwalior and Dewas Lok Sabha seats respectively.

"With today's list, we have named candidates for 21 out of the 29 Lok Sabha seats in Madhya Pradesh. Sahu, who will contest against Kamal Nath in the Chhindwara Assembly bypoll to be held on April 29, is our youth leader from the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM)," MP BJP spokesperson Rajnish Agrawal told PTI.

Natthan Shah is a former MLA and RSS leader and his candidature against Nakul Nath for the Chhindwara Lok Sabha poll is being seen as a move by the BJP to cash in on the sizable tribal vote in the constituency.

Three out of the seven Assembly seats which comprise Chhindwara Lok Sabha constituency are reserved for Scheduled Tribes.

The Congress had won all seven Assembly seats in Chhindwara in the state polls in November last year.

The Congress has lost the Chhindwara Lok Sabha seat only once, in a bypoll in 1997, since Independence.

In 1997, Kamal Nath had lost to former MP CM and senior BJP leader Sunderlal Patwa.

Nath, who has been representing Chhindwara in the Parliament since 1980, was the longest-serving MP in the 16th Lok Sabha.

Mahendra Solanki, the BJP's candidate from Dewas, is a former lower court judge and he will be contesting against the Congress' Prahlad Tipanya, a folk singer and Padma Shri awardee.

The saffron party's candidate for Gwalior Lok Sabha seat, Vivek Sejwalkar, is the city's mayor.

The Congress is yet to declare its candidate for Gwalior seat.