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.
On Friday night, Kamal Nath had a close-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 senior Congress leader is said to be disgruntled over not getting a Rajya Sabha berth and also Rahul Gandhi reportedly being opposed to him since the party lost the assembly polls late last year.
The 77-year-old had been replaced as the party’s Madhya Pradesh unit chief following its rout in the assembly polls, in which the BJP retained power, winning 163 seats in the 230-member House. The Congress managed to win just 66 seats.
However, seasoned politician with over 40 years of experience, Kamal Nath left the political watchers guessing. Though all is not going well between Rahul and Kamal Nath, the latter was regularly visiting to meet 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. That probably disappointed Kamal Nath, who wants to retain his bastion, Chhindwara.
All these sequences gave rise to the speculation that Kamal Nath, who is considered close to the Nehru-Gandhi family, likely to end his decades-long association with the grand old party ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.
