The Congress party has made it clear that its current state president and former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath will be the next CM if the party wins the Assembly polls this year.

Kamal Nath became the chief minister in 2018 when the grand-old party broke the three-term streak of the Bharatiya Janata Party. However, Nath had to step down from his post after Jyotiraditya Scindia and 22 others jumped ship over to the BJP.

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Congress last had a full-term government in the Hindi heartland from 1998 to 2003. As the party gears up with full might to turn the tables and wrest back power from the ruling party, here’s a look at the life and political career of one of its heavyweight contestants:

  • Kamal Nath, a nine-time Member of Parliament, will once again contest from the Chhindwara Assembly. Born on November 18, 1946, to Mahendra Nath and mother Leela Nath in Kanpur, Nath is Congress’ chief ministerial face.
  • A commerce graduate from St. Xavier’s College in Kolkata, Nath has been in active politics for over four decades, having contested and won his first election way back in 1980.
  • The veteran party leader has served in various positions within the Congress party. Between 2004 and 2014, when Congress was in power at the Centre, Kamal Nath served as the Union Minister of Commerce & Industry until 2009. From 2009 to 2011, he was the Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways, and then from 2011 to 2014, he served as Union Minister for Urban Development as well as Parliamentary Affairs.

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  • In 2011, Kamal Nath was declared the richest cabinet minister in India with declared assets worth Rs 263 crore. Currently, he has total assets of Rs 206 crore.
  • In 2018, Congress defeated the BJP and Kamal Nath was elected as the chief minister. However, just over a year later, he stepped down and Shivraj Singh Chouhan was elected as the 19th CM of the state after Jyotiraditya Scindia pulled the rug from under the Kamal Nath government and joined the BJP with his loyalists in a shock rebellion against the grand-old party.