Kamlesh Shah files nomination for Amarwara assembly bypoll
In a major setback to the Congress ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, Shah, a three-time party MLA from the Amarwara assembly segment under Chhindwara Lok Sabha seat and close confidante of former CM Kamal Nath, resigned on March 29 and joined the ruling BJP
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Bhopal: Three-time MLA Kamlesh Shah, who quit the Congress ahead of the Lok Sabha elections and joined the BJP, on Tuesday filed his nomination for the assembly bypoll to the Amarwara seat in Madhya Pradesh as a candidate of the saffron party.
The bypoll will be held on July 10 for the Amarwara seat located in Chhindwara district. The seat is reserved for Scheduled Tribe (ST) candidates. Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav and BJP's state president Vishnu Dutt Sharma were present when Shah filed his nomination papers.
"Amarwara assembly segment played a major role in the BJP's recent victory by over one lakh votes in the Lok Sabha polls from Chhindwara. Shah is associated with the BJP now and we will take all possible measures for the development of this constituency," Yadav told reporters after Shah filed his nomination. Sharma said people will vote in a historic manner in favour of the BJP and its Amarwara candidate Kamlesh Shah. "We will win this time too with historic margin. Chhindwara is a fort of welfare-oriented schemes of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and CM Mohan Yadav.
In the recent Lok Sabha polls, BJP has won with a huge margin from Amarwara assembly segment. In the bypoll also, the BJP will create a history by winning this seat with a record margin," he said. In a major setback to the Congress ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, Shah, a three-time party MLA from the Amarwara assembly segment under Chhindwara Lok Sabha seat and close confidante of former CM Kamal Nath, resigned on March 29 and joined the ruling BJP soon after. Shah later resigned from the membership of the state assembly, paving the way for the by-poll on Amarwara seat.
In the recently-concluded Lok Sabha polls, the BJP won all 29 parliamentary seats in Madhya Pradesh, including Chhindwara, the only seat that it had failed to win in the 2019 general elections. The Election Commission announced bypolls to 13 assembly constituencies across seven states, including Amarwara in Madhya Pradesh, on July 10.
After winning the Chhindwara Lok Sabha seat, Nath's home turf, the BJP will face the challenge of winning this assembly seat, which was won by Shah as a Congress candidate in November 2023. In the Lok Sabha election, BJP candidate Vivek Bunty Sahu defeated former MP and Congress candidate Nakul Nath, son of Kamal Nath, by a margin of 1.13 lakh votes.
After 1972, the BJP won the Amarwara seat twice - in 1990 and 2008 - while the Congress won nine times. Gondwana Gantantra Party (GGP), a tribal outfit, won this seat once in 2003. The last date of filing of nomination papers is June 21 and the last date for withdrawal of nomination papers is June 26. The votes will be counted on July 13.
