Can "third son" of Indira Gandhi ever leave party? MP Cong chief on Kamal Nath's BJP switch talk
Bhopal, Feb 17: Madhya Pradesh Congress chief Jitu Patwari on Saturday recalled how former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had described Kamal Nath as her "third son" as he dismissed the speculation that the party veteran may jump the ship to join the BJP.
Nath's colleague in the party and former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Digvijaya Singh also rubbished the rumours and dubbed them a "media creation".
"Can you dream of the third son of Indiraji (Gandhi) joining the BJP? " Patwari told reporters.
He said Nath stood behind the Congress like a rock during the bad patch when the government led by him was toppled by Jyotiraditya Scindia after joining the BJP in March 2020.
Amid speculation that he could cross over to the BJP, Kamal Nath arrived in New Delhi on Saturday afternoon and said if there would be any such thing, he would inform the media first.
In his brief interaction with reporters, he asked them not to get excited.
Meanwhile, Digvijaya Singh suggested that Kamal Nath who started his political innings with the Nehru-Gandhi family could never leave the party.
"Don't get into the breaking business. I spoke with Kamal Nathji last night around 10.30 or 11. He is in Chhindwara. The person who started his political innings with the Gandhi and Nehru family....He stood behind the party when the entire Janata Party and the then government was sending (former PM) Indiraji to jail," he told reporters in Jabalpur.
"Can you believe that such a man will leave Congress, Soniaji and Indiraji family? You all should not even think of it," he added.
An astute politician who had worked with three generations of the Gandhi family, Nath's relations with Madhya Pradesh date back to 1979, when former prime minister Indira Gandhi had described him as her "third son".
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
