BHOPAL: Day after his sudden arrival in Delhi -- after cutting short five-days tour to political pocket-borough Chhindwara -- triggered a strong buzz about him and first-time MP son Nakul Nath joining the BJP, the veteran Congress leader and ex-Madhya Pradesh CM Kamal Nath kept political pundits guessing about his next move on Sunday.
From Bhopal to Delhi, suspense prevailed over what would be Nath’s next move, amid various theories doing rounds of political circles.
While the Congress leadership, including ex-AICC presidents Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi and party’s general secretary reportedly rang and talked to Nath, in attempts to prevent him from making the possible big political switchover, Nath himself remained non-committal about his next move.
“I had told you all (journalists) on Saturday also that if something which you are asking (me joining the BJP) actually materializes, then you all will be the first ones to know. Right now, I’m going to a condolence ceremony, do you all also want to come? I haven’t had any talk with anyone (in the BJP) on what you all are asking,” Nath said while leaving for some condolence meeting in Delhi.
A few hours later, one of key loyalists and former MP minister Sajjan Singh Verma (who had dropped Congress word and its symbol from his social media Bio just like Nath’s son Nakul Nath on Saturday) met with the ex-MP CM at latter’s residence in Delhi.
“I met him (Nath) just now, he was busy with a chart of all 29 LS seats of MP and discussed how to strike the perfect caste balance while choosing candidates on all those seats. He hasn’t had any discussions with anybody about leaving Congress and joining the BJP, it’s all media’s speculation and creation. His (Nath’s) long association with the Nehru-Gandhi family is well-known,” Verma said on Sunday.
Surprisingly, Verma had on Saturday said, “If someone who has dedicated over 40 years of life to a party, doesn’t get deserving honour, then a major political move can’t be ruled out. I’ll follow the same path that my leader (Kamal Nath) takes.”
MP Congress president Jitu Patwari, termed media reports about Kamal Nath and Nakul Nath joining BJP, as "misleading and figment of imagination."
"I've talked to him (Nath) over the phone a short while ago, he told me that whatever is there in the media is all misleading. He has assured me that I was with Congress and will continue to be with the party in future also. Winning and losing are all part of democracy, but he (Nath) or anyone else, including Sajjan Singh Verma aren't going anywhere," Patwari said in Bhopal on Sunday evening.
In a related development, apparently aimed to dissuade Congress leaders from joining the BJP, the state Congress released on Sunday, a list of 62 Congress leaders, who had joined the BJP in various parts of MP during the last few years. "Out of the 62 such leaders, merely seven could click with the BJP, while the political career of remaining 55 leaders ended in BJP," the state Congress said.
Theories of various possibilities doing rounds of political circles:
Meanwhile, theories of various political possibilities pertaining to Kamal Nath and his Chhindwara MP son Nakul Nath are going on in political circles in Delhi as well as Bhopal.
An informed source considered close to Nath, told this newspaper that “It’s quite possible that son Nakul Nath and not father Kamal Nath, actually joins the BJP alone or along with wife Priya Nath (Nakul’s wife).”
Importantly, the BJP’s mega campaign which will reportedly see senior leaders (including former and present lawmakers) from other parties joining it, will begin in Delhi from Monday. One of the possibilities is that Nakul Nath with or without wife Priya might join the BJP there only.
Sources added that Nath is concerned about Nakul’s political future, particularly as he had won the 2019 LS polls from Chhindwara by just 37,500-plus votes, even while the Congress government led by Nath was in power in MP. Knowing well that a strong BJP candidate from the same seat (the only LS seat which was won by Congress from MP in 2019) might mar Nakul’s victory prospects, Nath might clear son’s passage into the BJP.
Another possibility which is doing rounds of MP’s political circles is that while Nakul Nath or even Kamal Nath may join BJP in Delhi, the ruling party may organize a big rally, possibly in Chhindwara’s Polo Ground (just a day or two before Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra’s February 22 arrival in MP) where many senior leaders, including present and former Congress MLAs may join the BJP.
While most BJP leaders from MP remained busy in the party’s national convention in Delhi, senior MP cabinet minister Kailash Vijayvargiya when asked about the possibility of Nath joining the BJP, said, “There is no smoke without fire.” Importantly, Vijayvargiya just a few days back had stated that the state BJP leaders weren’t in favour of Nath joining the party.
In Delhi only, national secretary of BJP’s youth wing BJYM, Tajinder Bagga made a series of social media posts, saying “There can be no place for Kamal Nath in BJP, as he was involved in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. Maybe his son Nakul Nath is in touch with the party.”
