BJP candidate Kamlesh Shah’s win in Amarwara by-poll delivers second blow to Kamal Nath

BHOPAL: The ruling BJP won the lone assembly by-election in the state on Saturday, as its candidate Kamlesh Shah defeated Congress’s Dheeranshah Invati by just 3027 votes in a battle that went down the wire.

Saturday’s by-poll loss meant a second jolt to ex-CM Kamal Nath after son Nakul Nath’s 1.13 lakh votes defeat from Chhindwara LS seat on June 4. Amarwara (ST) is one of the seven assembly segments forming Nath’s erstwhile pocket-borough Chhindwara LS constituency.

While the winning BJP candidate polled 83,105 votes, the first-runners up Congress candidate got 80,078 votes.

The second runners-up Gondwana Gantantra Party (GGP) candidate Deviram Bhalavi polled 28,723 votes, largely eating into the Congress votes and thus helping the ruling party candidate win the contest by a low margin.

Importantly, the BJP candidate was ahead by over 2500 votes till the fourth round of counting, but the first-time Congress nominee surged ahead thereafter, leading till the 16th round by over 7700 votes before the ruling party candidate reversed the lead and ultimately won by the contest in the 20th and last round by 3000-plus votes.

While the BJP cornered 40.84% vote (3.54% more than 2023 assembly polls), Congress’s vote 39.35% share was 9% lower than the previous polls. The GGP emerged as the biggest gainer, as its 14.12% share was six per cent more than the 2023 assembly polls.

Interestingly, the BJP candidate Kamlesh Shah (who is from the erstwhile Harrai princely state’s royal family) was the Congress’s 2013, 2018 and 2023 winner. He quit as an MLA and from the Congress on March 30, 2024, to join the BJP just before the Lok Sabha polls, necessitating the July 10 by-election.

On the other hand, the Congress’s greenhorn candidate Dheeranshah Invati is the son of the prime sevak (caretaker) of the Anchal Kund Dham, the prime centre of tribal faith in Chhindwara and Pandhurna districts, owing to which the poll battle was termed as a contest between Royalty and Faith.

With the Congress candidate, having been largely handpicked by the 77-year-old former CM Kamal Nath, Saturday’s by-poll defeat for the prime opposition party meant that the veteran politician failed to capitalize on the first opportunity to avenge the loss of his pocket-borough Chhindwara LS seat to the BJP in the recent national elections and teach his former loyalist Kamlesh Shah a befitting lesson at the hustings.

Chhindwara Lok Sabha seat, which houses seven assembly segments, including Amarwara (ST), has since 1980, been the pocket-borough of the Nath family. While Nath (the former union minister and ex-CM) had won the LS seat record nine times between 1980 and 2014, his wife Alka Nath won it once, while son Nakul Nath won in 2019, before losing to BJP in 2024 by a massive 1.13 lakh votes.

The campaign ahead of the July 10 by-election had seen all prominent politicians from both sides in the state solicit votes for their party candidates in Amarwara.

While MP CM Dr Mohan Yadav toured the constituency multiple times, besides the state BJP chief VD Sharma camping there for many days, Kamal Nath along with other state leaders, including state Congress chief Jitu Patwari and leader of opposition Umang Singhar had campaigned extensively for the first-time candidate.

However, as per political watchers, the inability of the Congress to stitch an alliance with the GGP helped the BJP’s cause, which won by 3000-odd votes in a gripping contest.

The BJP candidate’s winning margin on Saturday was eight times lower than his 2023 assembly polls winning margin of 25,000-plus votes when he won the seat for the third consecutive term as a Congress candidate.

In the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the BJP candidate Vivek Sahu had led against sitting Congress MP Nakul Nath by over 18,000 votes from the same Amarwara-ST assembly segment.

Interestingly, Saturday’s by-poll win was the BJP’s third win from the seat since 1972. The saffron party last won the seat in 2008, when two-times former Congress MLA Premnarayan Thakur, won the seat for the BJP by a mere 427 votes. Before it, BJP’s Mehman Shah Uike had won the seat by 1000-plus votes in 1990.