■ By Bhavana ‘Aparajita’ Shukla

 

ONLY uncertainty is certain in politics. Proving the saying true, veteran Congress leader Kamal Nath along with his son and Member of Parliament from Chhindwara, Nakul Nath, who was supposed to continue his meeting with party workers in his family bastion Chhindwara from February 14 to 18, suddenly called off the meeting and left for Delhi along with his father. Moreover, junior Nath has also removed ‘INC’ from his social media profile. At Pradesh Congress office, senior leaders are dodging the question whether the duo would join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). All these developments gave rise to the speculation that Kamal Nath, who is considered close to the NehruGandhi family, is likely to end his decades long association with the Grand Old Party ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.Talking to the media before leaving for Delhi Kamal Nath had posed counter question, “You people (media persons) tell me what should I do? Significantly,hehadmade an emotional appeal in Chhindwara while addressingapublicmeeting saying “till my last breath,I will work forthe development of Chhind war a . ” Importantly, he did not mention name of Congress party. Sources hadthenalsoclaimedthat a deal between Kamal NathandtheBJPthatwas derailed due to some reasons, was brought back on track again with several top leaders from the BJP having supported the same. However, seasoned politician with over 40 years of experience, KamalNathleftthepolitical watchers guessing.

 

Though all is not going well between Rahul Gandhi and Kamal Nath, the latter was regularly visiting Sonia Gandhi. KamalNath’sfrequentvisitstomeetSoniawerealso beingviewedastheleader racing for the RajyaSabha seat from Madhya Pradesh. Recently, when Kamal Nath invited CongressMLAs for a dinner at his residence in Bhopal, it was judged as his power show to obtain theRajya Sabhanomination. However, two days later, the party nominatedMPCongressTreasurer AshokSinghfortheUpper House of the Parliament. In Madhya Pradesh, after Assembly election rout, former Chief MinisterKamalNathwas being replaced with Jitu Patwari from the post of Pradesh Congress Committee. This has aggrieved the situation within the party and it was clearly visible since then that ‘all is not well’ in grand old party, Congress.”

 

Amid speculationsofswitchingsides, Kamal Nath in Delhi on Saturday said in his brief interaction with reporters,“Itisnot about denying, you are saying this, you people are gettingexcited.I am notgetting excited, this side or that side, but if there wouldbe any suchthing, I wouldinform youfirst.” PCC chief Jitu Patwari termed speculations baseless saying “for the first time when respected Kamal Nathji fought elections, thenlate Indira Gandhi called Kamal Nath herthird son. I still remember whenScindia toppled the Congress governmentinMP, allthe Congress workers stood with Kamal Nath’s leadership. The news that’s speculated is baseless. Can you imagine Indira Gandhi’s third son can leave Congress? Can’t think about something likethatevenindreams.” He further said that he (Kamal Nath) has been servingthegrandoldparty for over four decades and the party workers alsostoodwithhimwhen Jyotiraditya Scindia toppled the Congress government in Madhya Pradesh.SeniorCongress leader and former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijaya Singh alsorubbishtherumours and dubbed them a ‘media imagination’.