Tribal leaders determined to teach Kamal Nath a lesson at the hustings

Tara Shankar Sahay in Delhi

After representing Chindwara in the Lok Sabha for 16 years, Kamal Nath may find regaining his lost seat in the Lower House of the People a difficult exercise this time around.

For one, the Bharatiya Janata Party has fielded the formidable Sunderlal Patwa -- the state's former chief minister -- for the by-election in the Madhya Pradesh constituency, which Kamal Nath's wife Alka Nath resigned recently.

For another, tribal leaders in the Congress are determined to teach Kamal Nath, a former environment minister, a bitter lesson at the hustings.

Since Chindwara is situated in the heart of the state's tribal belt, Congress leaders belonging to the tribal communities feel that one of their own should have been allowed to contest the by-election.

Angered by Kamal Nath's decision to contest the poll, , Congress tribal leaders Dalip Singh Bhuria and Ajit Jogi are understood to have put up their own candidates for the by-election.

Kamal Nath is learnt to have persuaded Bhuria's nominee to withdraw from the contest. However, he has not had much luck on this score with Jogi whose candidate belonging to the newly-launched Gondwana Loktantrik Party is very much in the fray.

The tribal leaders hope that with the tribal votes being divided in the Chindwara by-election, Kamal Nath will be defeated.

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijay Singh has deputed as many as 17 ministers to ensure that Kamal Nath -- who was denied a ticket to contest the May 1996 general election because he was chargesheeted in the hawala case -- emerged victorious.

Digvijay Singh told Congress president Sitaram Kesri during his recent visit to Bhopal that Kamal Nath's victory was a matter of prestige for the party because Chindwara has traditionally been a Congress bastion.

Kamal Nath is typically confident about his chances. "There is no controversy at all. I am contesting and I will win hands down," he said, asking that "needless publicity" not be given to those who were trying to sabotage the Congress party's electoral prospects.

The resentment against Kamal Nath -- who has represented Chindwara since 1980 -- has been there for a long time. The tribals see him as an outsider. Which Kamal Nath is. His origins are in Calcutta from where he went to Doon school and became one of Sanjay Gandhi's cronies.

Kesri has so far not taken sides. He is apparently unwilling to antagonise Digvijay Singh -- the only Congress chief minister of a large state -- who has thrown in his lot with Kamal Nath.