BHOPAL: In perhaps the biggest jolt to former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Kamal Nath in the poll season, the veteran politician’s key associate and former MP minister Deepak Saxena quit the Congress party on Thursday.
The development happened just a few hours after Saxena’s son Ajay Saxena joined the BJP in Bhopal. It’s, however, yet not clear what will be the former minister’s next political move, particularly after his son joined the BJP.
Saxena, who is considered one of staunchest Kamal Nath loyalists, had won from Chhindwara assembly seat four times in the past and vacated the seat for Nath, after the latter became the MP CM in December 2018. In May 2019, Nath had won from the same seat and retained it in the 2023 assembly polls also. After winning from the Chhindwara assembly seat in 2018, Saxena was also appointed Pro Tem Speaker of the Vidhan Sabha.
Saxena was also a minister in the erstwhile Congress governments headed by Digvijaya Singh in MP between 1993 and 2003. While Saxena quit the Congress, Nath’s son and Congress candidate from Chhindwara seat Nakul Nath cancelled a major part of his poll campaign in MP on Thursday and is believed to have gone to Delhi.
Last month when there was a buzz about Nath and sitting MP son Nakul Nath switching over to the BJP, it was Saxena only, who had claimed that a section of top Congress leadership in Delhi was not treating Nath respectfully since the 2023 assembly polls defeat of the party in MP.