Veteran Congress leader and former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath arrived in the national capital on Saturday afternoon amid strong speculation that he may join the BJP.
Asked if he is joining the BJP, Kamal Nath told mediapersons “why are you all getting excited, if there is any such thing, you will be the first to be informed about it.” Nath did not make any denial when he was specifically asked about the speculation. “There was no question of his being excited in being here or there,” he said.
The senior Congress leader’s remarks came after the rumours which have been doing the rounds that he and his son, Nakul Nath, may soon join the saffron party.
Earlier in the day, Congress leader Digvijaya Singh reacted to speculations over Kamal Nath joining the BJP and said, “I spoke to Kamal Nath on Friday, he was in Chhindwara. A person who started his political journey and stood with the Nehru-Gandhi family when Indira Gandhi was sent to jail, do you think he will ever leave Congress and the Gandhi family?”
Meanwhile, talking to mediapersons in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh Congress President Jitu Patwari said, “Kamal Nath has always stood with the ideology of Congress. Indira Gandhi used to consider him as her third son. For the past seven years, he has been working as MP Congress chief, all the party workers have worked hard to make him the CM. Kamal Nath is not like Scindia. Kamal Nath is a Congress leader by ideology. He will never change his party for positions…even such a thought that he will leave, is wrong.”
Congress MP Nakul Nath removed ‘INC’ from his social media bio, giving further momentum to the rumours that he is going to join the BJP.
Furthermore, Nakul Nath, the lone Congress MP from Madhya Pradesh, who was supposed to continue his meeting with party workers in his family bastion Chhindwara from February 14 to 18, stopped the meeting and left for Delhi along with his father.
All these sequences gave rise to the speculation that Kamal Nath, considered close to the Nehru-Gandhi family, is likely to end his decades long association with the grand old party ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.