Several Kamal Nath loyalist MLAs reach Delhi amid talk of switch to BJP; Digvijaya says won't happen
Bhopal, Feb 18: Around half a dozen Madhya Pradesh MLAs loyal to senior Congress leader Kamal Nath reached Delhi on Sunday, accentuating the speculation that he and his MP son Nakul Nath are set to join the ruling BJP.
In MP capital Bhopal, Nath's Congress colleague Digvijaya Singh expressed confidence that his "old friend" won't forsake the party from where he began his political journey, even as a picture of a flag, with Jai Shri Ram' written on it, purportedly flying at Nath's Delhi home provided enough fodder to social media users.
According to party insiders, MP Congress chief Jitu Patwari remained busy through Saturday establishing contact with his MLAs and telling them that Nath and his son won't cross over to the BJP.
Of those MLAs who have followed Nath to Delhi, three are from Chhindwara, while another three from the region are set to leave for Delhi, sources close to the veteran leader said earlier.
These MLAs were not answering calls, with some Congress insiders claiming Nath loyalist and former state minister Lakhan Ghangoriya was also camping with them in Delhi.
Nath (77), a nine-time MP from Chhindwara and currently MLA from the seat, is a former chief minister who was removed as the party's state president following the Congress' dismal performance in the November Assembly polls.
The party also did not pick Nath, an astute politician who had worked with three generations of the Gandhi family, as its nominee from MP for Rajya Sabha polls.
In 1979, then prime minister Indira Gandhi had described him as her third son when she introduced him to the people of Chhindwara at a public meeting ahead of the 1980 Lok Sabha polls. Nath's friendship with Indira Gandhi's son Sanjay Gandhi was a much-discussed topic in Congress circles then.
Deepak Saxena, former MP Minister and Nath loyalist, told reporters in Chhindwara he was hurt by the way the latter was removed as state unit chief following the Assembly debacle.
"We want our leader to be accorded all respect. Whatever decision he takes, we will be with him," Saxena said.
Another Nath loyalist, former state minister Sajjan Singh Verma, wrote Jai Shri Ram' in his X profile. "I will follow Kamal Nath," Verma, a former MP, had told reporters on Saturday.
The Nath camp was making efforts to get the support of 23 MLAs so that anti-defection laws don't apply to them, party insiders claimed. The Congress has 66 seats in the 230-member Assembly.
"In case one-third of the MLAs switch over, then anti-defection laws will not apply," MP High Court advocate Rakesh Pandey told PTI.
If the rumours surrounding Nath turn out to be true, it would mean another big blow to the Congress, which recently saw a high-profile exit in former Maharashtra chief minister Ashok Chavan.
In Bhopal, Digvijaya Singh said that the veteran leader started his political journey from the Congress and expressed confidence that his "old friend" won't leave it.
Singh said he and other Congress leaders were in contact with former MP chief minister Nath.
"We all used to consider Kamal Nath the third son of late prime minister Indira ji (after Sanjay Gandhi and ex-PM Rajiv Gandhi)," the Rajya Sabha member told reporters here.
"Kamal Nath ji has always been with the Congress. He is a true Congress leader... He has got all posts, including chief minister, union minister, AICC general secretary and MP Congress chief," Singh said.
Nath's character is such that he won't yield to the pressure of central agencies like ED, I-T or CBI, he said.
"The biggest denial of all such speculation is that Kamal Nath has still not joined the BJP or resigned from the Congress," Singh said.
Nath arrived in the national capital on Saturday afternoon. His son and Chhindwara MP Nakul Nath dropped Congress from his bio on social media. In the 2019 general elections, the BJP won 28 of the 29 Lok Sabha seats, except Chhindwara.
Meanwhile, the state Congress chief was busy telling his party MLAs that Nath wouldn't join BJP, said party insiders.
Recalling India Gandhi's "third son" utterance for Nath, Patwari had said on Saturday, "Can you dream of the third son of Indiraji (Gandhi) joining the BJP?"
He said Nath stood behind the Congress like a rock during its bad patch when the government led by him was toppled by Scindia.
In March 2020, Jyotiraditya Scindia and several MLAs loyal to him had switched over to the BJP, bringing down the Congress government led by Nath.
VIDEO | Here's what Congress leader @digvijaya_28 said when asked about reports of Kamal Nath joining the BJP.
— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) February 18, 2024
"I am in constant touch with Kamal Nath, the party leadership is also in touch with him. Kamal Nath started (his political journey) with Congress and he is known as the… pic.twitter.com/OSyg1icRHg
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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.
