Meanwhile kamal nath tried hard to get this bungalow allotted to his wife Alka Nath. His wife had become an mp for the first time, due to which he could not get a bigger bungalow. On the other hand, kamal nath was not ready to leave the bungalow at any cost. For the sake of this bungalow, he got his wife to resign from the membership of parliament and himself became a candidate in the by-election in Chhindwara. By then he had also been acquitted of the taint of the Hawala scandal.

Almost everyone outside Chhindwara felt that kamal nath was going to become a member of the lok sabha for the fifth time. There was a congress government in madhya pradesh and Digvijay Singh was the Chief Minister. He had full hope of getting the benefits of having a government. kamal nath filed his nomination with much fanfare and claimed that victory in the elections was certain. Meanwhile, before the nomination, Bharatiya Janata party, in a big move, fielded its biggest leader from madhya pradesh Sunderlal Patwa from Chhindwara against Kamal Nath. The party had kept its decision extremely confidential. Many senior leaders from both the parties across the country started reaching Chhindwara for election campaign.