BHOPAL: Rewind back to March 2020, when 22 Congress MLAs (mostly loyal to Jyotiraditya Scindia) walked out of the Congress – pulling down the 15-months-old Kamal Nath-led Congress regime in Madhya Pradesh.
Nearly four years later, the grand old political party is apprehensive of another exodus of its sitting and former MLAs in Madhya Pradesh, if its former state party chief Kamal Nath or his first-time MP son Nakul Nath or both of them actually join the BJP.
While the Congress’s central leadership, including former Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her MP son Rahul Gandhi, are reportedly making all possible efforts to convince Nath to respect his decades-old bonding with the party and the Nehru-Gandhi family, back in Bhopal, the state Congress leadership too is engaged in damage control measure.
The state Congress leadership is already talking to its 66 sitting MLAs one-on-one, to ensure no damage or least damage to its ranks ahead of the February 22 arrival of Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra in MP.
According to sources in Nath’s camp, if Nath or even his son Nakul Nath and daughter-in-law Priya Nath switchover to BJP, they will be accompanied by 15-20 sitting MLAs, 5-8 former MLAs (many of whom lost the 2023 assembly polls) and two mayors.
The majority of sitting MLAs who might follow Nath and his family includes the six MLAs of Chhindwara and Pandhurna districts, besides MLAs from adjoining Balaghat, Seoni, Mandla and Dindori districts, ex-minister and third-time sitting MLA from Jabalpur-East seat Lakhan Ghanghoriya, second-time MLA from Paraswada seat Madhu Bhagat, Baihar MLA Sanjay Uike and Waraseoni MLA Vicky Patel (all three from Balaghat district). These districts form part of Nath’s home region – Mahakoshal – which sends 17 out of the 66 present Congress MLAs.
Not just MLAs from the tribal-dominated Mahakoshal region, but some MLAs loyal and close to Nath from other regions such as Dinesh Gurjar, the first-time MLA from Morena seat of Gwalior-Chambal region.
Also, many of Congress 2023 assembly polls' big losers, including ex-ministers Sajjan Singh Verma, Tarun Bhanot, Vijaylaxmi Sadho, Ravi Joshi and Sukhdev Panse (Verma and Panse are reportedly camping in Delhi) and fourth-time former MLA from Chhindwara seat Deepak Saxena (who had vacated his seat for Nath in 2018) are likely to walk behind Nath.
However, it’s not clear whether senior MLA from Rajpur-ST seat of west MP and ex-home minister Bala Bachchan also follows Nath into the BJP or not. The Congress circles are also worried over the possibility of its two mayors Vikram Ahke (Chhindwara) and Sharda Solanki (Morena) following Nath into the BJP, just a few weeks after Jabalpur mayor Jagat Bahadur Singh ‘Annu’ dumped the Congress to join BJP.
A senior Congress MLA who too was a minister in the 15 months long Kamal Nath-led regime in MP between 2019 and 2020, told this newspaper, “Though it’s yet not clear whether Nath or his son will actually join the BJP or not, even if it happens, just handful of MLAs, particularly from Chhindwara, Pandhurna and Balaghat districts of Mahakoshal region will follow their leader into the BJP.”
Meanwhile, four-times former Congress MLA from Chhindwara seat Deepak Saxena, who is considered very close to Nath, made it clear that the possible big move by Nath will happen, largely due to the veteran politician’s repeated insults and ignorance from the party. He has served for nearly five decades in Congress.
“Congress lost assembly polls in Chhattisgarh (which was ruled by Rahul Gandhi’s man Bhupesh Baghel), Rajasthan and MP, but only Kamal Nath was being targeted and blamed by the Congress’s top brass. The humiliation was continuous since the polls were over, including removing him as MP Congress chief and then not naming him the RS polls candidate from MP. He (Nath) has always stood by the Gandhi family, right since the days of Indira Gandhi. Earlier, he (Nath) was part of all key committees of the Congress, but it’s not the same now. Given the current situation, the big move by Nath and his son might happen in the next one or two days,” Saxena told this newspaper.
Continuing to put on a brave face, former MP CM Digvijaya Singh told journalists in Bhopal, “We all have always regarded him as Indira Gandhi’s third son and he too has always been committed to the Congress and has been among the prime pillars of the party. Spanning from posts of union minister, and AICC secretary to MP Congress chief and MP CM, he has been given all major responsibilities. The pressure of ED, income tax and other agencies is on him also, just like it’s on the others. But I’m still confident that he’ll not leave the party.”
