Amidst speculation about former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister and senior Congress leader Kamal Nath’s potential move to the BJP, his loyalist Sajjan Singh Verma stated on Sunday that Nath has not yet decided to leave the Congress party.
Verma mentioned that he recently met with Kamal Nath, who is currently focused on analyzing the caste dynamics in the 29 Lok Sabha seats in Madhya Pradesh for the upcoming parliamentary elections.
“I had a discussion with him (Kamal Nath). He said that right now his focus is on how the caste equations will be on 29 Lok Sabha seats in Madhya Pradesh. He said that he has not thought about anything like that (of leaving the party),” Verma told news agency ANI.
Verma’s comments followed accusations by another loyalist and former state minister, Deepak Saxena, who claimed that the Congress had neglected Kamal Nath and unfairly blamed him for the party’s poor performance in the recent state elections.
“Kamal Nath has been neglected since the (2023 Assembly) elections. No one would have thought that Bhupesh Baghel would lose. We lost in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, and Rajasthan where we didn’t think we would lose. But why is only Kamal Nath being blamed for it,” Saxena said.
“Only he (Kamal Nath) is being blamed…The public wants Kamal Nath to join the BJP so that development works will be done in Chhindwara… The way he (Kamal Nath) has been removed from his post, there is a group of 11 senior Congress members, we all discussed and decided that if we are neglected like this then it would be better to join the BJP and get the work done. I will also join…,” Saxena added.
In response to reports about his alleged contact with the BJP, Kamal Nath stated, “I said yesterday that if there is something like that, I will inform you all. I did not talk to anyone.”
During the 2023 Madhya Pradesh elections, the BJP won a significant victory, securing 163 of the 230 assembly seats, while the Congress managed to win only 66 seats. Following the election, Nath was replaced as the Madhya Pradesh unit chief.
The speculation about Nath’s potential departure from the Congress comes shortly after Milind Deora and Ashok Chavan resigned from the party.