Congress leader Kamal Nath arrives in Delhi, sidesteps questions on potential switch to BJP
Senior Congress leader and former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Kamal Nath, along with his son Nakul Nath, arrived in the national capital on Saturday amidst swirling speculation about a potential defection to the BJP.
The move comes as Nakul, the lone Congress MP from Madhya Pradesh, removed 'INC' from his social media bio, fueling further speculation about a potential departure from the grand old party. The bio of Nakul on X now identifies him only as a Member of Parliament, Chhindwara (MP).
Meanwhile, in his brief interaction with reporters, the former Madhya Pradesh CM asked them not to get excited.
Asked if he is joining the BJP, Nath said, "If there would be any such thing, I would inform you first."
When a reporter asked if he was not denying a possible switch, Nath said: "It is not about denying, you are saying this, you people are getting excited. I am not getting excited, this side or that side, but if there would be any such thing, I would inform you first."
Over the past few days, Nath has been on a tour of his bastion, Chhindwara, from where he has been an MP for nine terms and his son won the seat in the 2019 polls, even as the BJP swept the remaining 28 seats in the state.
However, sources in the Madhya Pradesh Congress still believe that Nakul Nath may join the BJP but not Kamal Nath, citing the latter's decades-long association of Kamal Nath with the Congress and his personal bonding with the Nehru-Gandhi family.
Asked about the speculation that Nath could cross over to the BJP, senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh said in Jabalpur earlier in the day, "I spoke to Kamal Nath at 10.30 pm yesterday; he is in Chhindwara."
"A person who started his political journey and stood with the Nehru-Gandhi family when Indira Gandhi was sent to jail by the Janata party, do you think such a person will ever leave Congress and the Gandhi family?" Singh said.
Speculation had been rife for the last few days after ex-Lok Sabha speaker Sumitra Mahajan said on Thursday, “If Nath actually believed in development, then he should quit the Congress and join the BJP after taking Lord Ram’s name.”
Just a day later on Friday, state BJP chief VD Sharma added more fuel, saying, “BJP’s doors are open to all those Congress leaders who are pained by their party’s top brass’s decision of not attending the January 22 Ram Temple consecration ceremony in Ayodhya. If he (Kamal Nath) is among such leaders, he too is welcome to the BJP family.”
According to sources close to Nath, the BJP’s national top brass has been in touch with the former MP CM for the last few weeks. Nath is particularly concerned about his son Nakul Nath’s political future from Chhindwara, knowing well that it would be difficult for the first time MP to win easily if the BJP fields a strong candidate there in the Lok Sabha polls.
Chhindwara was the only Lok Sabha seat among the 29 in MP, which the Congress was able to win in the 2019 polls.
It was under Nath’s leadership that the Congress returned to power in MP after 15 years in 2018, but the government didn’t last long and was toppled by the BJP with the help of Jyotiraditya Scindia and 22 of his loyalist Congress MLAs in March 2020.
Three-and-a-half years later, the Nath-led Congress suffered a shocking defeat in the 2023 assembly polls in MP, winning just 66 seats while the BJP bagged 163. He quit two months later in January 2024 as state Congress chief and was replaced by Vidhan Sabha polls loser ex-minister Jitu Patwari.
There have been reports about a section of the Congress’s central leadership not being happy with Nath’s style of functioning, which was counted among the reasons for the party’s debacle in the assembly polls.
Though all is not going well between Rahul and Kamal Nath, the latter was regularly meeting Sonia Gandhi. Kamal Nath's frequent visits to meet Sonia were also being viewed as the leader racing for the Rajya Sabha seat from Madhya Pradesh.
Recently, when Kamal Nath invited Congress MLAs for a dinner at his residence in Bhopal, it was judged as his power show to obtain the Rajya Sabha seat. However, two days later, the party nominated MP Congress treasurer Ashok Singh for the Upper House of Parliament. The senior Congress leader is said to be disgruntled over not getting a Rajya Sabha berth.
On Friday night, Kamal Nath had a closed-door meeting with senior Congress leaders of Chhindwara, which included Govind Rai, Vishwanath Okte, Deepak Saxena, Sunil Jaiswal, Arunoday Choubey, and Ramu Tekam, at his residence in Chhindwara.
Furthermore, Nakul, who was supposed to continue his meeting with party workers in Chhindwara from February 14 to 18, stopped the meeting and left for Delhi along with his father.
The entire sequence of events has given rise to the speculation that Kamal Nath is likely to end his decades-long association with the grand old party ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. A seasoned politician with over 40 years of experience, he continues to leave political watchers guessing.
(With inputs from ENS, PTI, IANS and ANI)