Senior BJP leader praises development in Kamal Nath's

Former BJP Rajya Sabha MP and National Commission for Scheduled Tribes vice chairperson Anusuiya Uikey Friday praised senior Congress leader Kamal Nath for making his constituency a "role model of compact development".

Madhya Pradesh Congress chief Kamal Nath is the Lok Sabha Member of Parliament from Chhindwara since 1980, having lost just one bypoll from here in the last 38 years.

"I have toured 29 states in India but I like Chhindwara the most. Though our ideologies (of BJP and Congress) are different, I congratulate MP Kamal Nath ji personally on behalf of people for turning Chhindwara district into a role model of compact development in the country," Uikey said at a book review function here.

Uikey has been a BJP Rajya Sabha member from MP and her statement assumes significance as Nath has been talking about how Chhindwara is a model of development for MP.

The state is slated to have Assembly polls at the end of the year.

Uikey recalled that when she was an RS member, somebody in Delhi had asked her if Kamal Nath has really developed Chhindwara.

"I said the district is not only the best in Madhya Pradesh but stands tall on the development count in the entire country," she said.

"I respect Kamal Nath ji like I did in the past. Whatever I am today, I give credit to Kamal Nath ji. He is like a guru to me," Uikey said, in an apparent reference to her stint as MP minister in the Congress before she joined the BJP.