Rumours about former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Kamal Nath and his MP son Nakul Nath might be “a conspiracy”, as the Congress has alleged, but the veteran leader himself appears complicit in it. He did not unequivocally scotch the rumours that began to swirl since the father-son duo suddenly landed in New Delhi on February 17.
Kamal Nath merely had to say that neither he nor his son was planning to leave the Congress, to clear the air. Instead, he evaded the media queries, neither confirming nor denying the rumours. And to add to the confusion, Nakul Nath dropped Congress from his social media bio, further fuelling rumours of a potential switch by the father-son duo. Kamal Nath’s staunch supporter and former minister Sajjan Singh Verma also removed Congress from his social media bio.
Denials by Congress leaders
Amid intriguing reticence from the father-son duo, Congress leaders from Digvijaya Singh to Jitu Patwari stoutly denied the possibility of defection. Digvijaya Singh, Nath’s long-time Congress colleague, was at the centre of the party’s efforts to try and stop the former Madhya Pradesh chief minister from breaking ranks. Singh talked to Nath at least three times during the intervening night of February 18 and 19. Madhya Pradesh Congress president Patwari too joined the efforts to dissuade Kamal Nath from jumping ship.
“The rumours that Kamal Nath is going to BJP, this is an example of how media can be misused. This was a conspiracy made against Kamal Nath. I spoke to him and he said that all these things are just rumours,” Patwari said.
“I spoke to him and he said that all these things are just rumours, and he is a Congress person and will continue to be a Congress person. He will continue to have Congress ideology till his last breath. These are his own thoughts,” he added.
However, the suspense about Kamal Nath’s future move persisted.
It was only on February 19 that the rumours abated – though were not cleared fully – when Kamal Nath’s acolyte Sajjan Singh Verma asserted that his leader would stay put in the Congress. The assertion followed his meeting with Kamal Nath.
Later, Congress general secretary in charge of Madhya Pradesh Jitendra Singh dismissed as “misinformation” the speculation over Kamal Nath’s switch to the BJP and asserted that the veteran leader will participate in the Rahul Gandhi-led Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra in Madhya Pradesh.
Kamal Nath’s vulnerability exposed
Thus, for now, Kamal Nath and Nakul Nath are with the Congress. However, the speculations surrounding the nine-time MP from Chhindwara have accentuated the rumours of his vulnerability to joining the BJP in the future, either owing to his ambitions to chart a political course outside the weakening Congress or to safeguard his business interests. The former chief minister knows only too well that despite his vehement claims of innocence, he is not out of the woods for his alleged involvement in the 1984 anti-Sikh violence. The matter is still in court for adjudication.
Moreover, he is aware he could more easily safeguard his business interests from the prying eyes of the sleuths of the CBI, IT and ED only if he is aligned with the ruling party at the Centre.
The septuagenarian leader appears more worried about the political future of his son than his own. Nakul Nath somehow managed to retain his father’s Chhindwara bastion for the Congress with a considerably reduced margin in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Nakul Nath was the lone Congress winner in all of Madhya Pradesh, while all the remaining 28 Lok Sabha seats went to the BJP’s kitty. For the coming election, the BJP appears hellbent on snatching from the Congress the Chhindwara seat too.
BJP eyes Chhindwara
Although all seven MLAs under the Chhindwara Lok Sabha constituency had won on a Congress ticket in the December 2023 assembly election, and all of them are his staunch loyalists, Kamal Nath seems unsure of banking on the seemingly rosy political calculus for his son to retain the pocket borough in the coming Lok Sabha election. T
he BJP’s relentless efforts to penetrate the lone Congress bastion in Madhya Pradesh in the run up to the Lok Sabha election seem to have unnerved the father-son duo.
Marginalised after poll debacle
Kamal Nath might not have toyed with the idea of switching over to the BJP in the face of the party’s all-out efforts to storm the Chhindwara fortress had he been assured of his continued and complete sway over the state Congress. The unexpected Congress debacle in the recently held assembly elections has diminished his political clout, so much so that the veteran leader was not even consulted on the appointment of his successor Patwari as the state Congress chief.
Although Patwari is as deferential to Kamal Nath after assuming his new responsibility as before, the state Congress organisation has come out of the former chief’s overwhelming shadow sooner than he may have imagined. Photographs of Kamal Nath and Digvijaya Singh are conspicuously missing in the banners and posters of the state Congress. While Digvijaya Singh seems to have reconciled to the changed political dynamics in the Congress, Kamal Nath is reported to be uneasy in coming to terms with the emerging reality where he is being regarded as a member of the Congress version of “Marg Darshak mandal.” He seems loathe to the idea of being treated as an L.K. Advani in the organisation which he ran as the unquestionable supreme boss from April 2017 to December 2023.
Chequered innings
The six-year period saw many highs and lows for Kamal Nath; he led the Congress to victory in the 2018 election; his government fell 15 months later owing to a revolt by his bete-noire Jyotiraditya Scindia; and, finally, the shocking defeat in the 2023 polls where the Congress tally came down from 114 in the previous election to just 66 out of the 230 seats.
The defeat in the assembly election shook the state Congress to the core. While the leaders publicly blamed it on a variety of reasons – some plausible and some ridiculous – among the cadres a near consensus emerged that the impervious and imperious leadership of Kamal Nath did the Congress in.
They felt that the then PCC chief’s dalliance with Hindutva damaged the Congress prospects in no small measure. Kamal Nath’s genuflection before dubious “Babas” such as Dhirendra Shastri and Pradeep Mishra and his flaunting the self-image of a Hanuman Bhakt only furthered the cause of Hindutva, much to the delight and benefit of the BJP.
Unsurprisingly, therefore, the ordinary Congress worker in Madhya Pradesh is more curious than worried about Kamal Nath and son’s politics. He wishes the Congress move on after the assembly defeat and celebrate rather than lament the disappearance of Kamal Nath from its arena.
Ideology-neutral Kamal Nath
Sure enough, Congress workers have never had any delusion about the businessman-politician’s commitment to the party’s ideology. Ever since he became Lok Sabha member from Chhindwara in 1980, the entry of the Kolkata-based industrialist in the MP Congress scenario spawned gossip about his riches, his go-getter persona, his proximity to the Gandhi family and his proficiency in back-room strategies. But, unlike Digvijaya Singh, his peer and long-time friend was never seen as a believer in Congress’s ideology, particularly secularism.
As long as Kamal Nath was in central politics while assiduously nurturing his Chhindwara constituency, his ideology didn’t matter much for the Congress workers. But his ambivalence to secularism as spearhead of the state Congress in the two assembly elections was noticed in the cadres with disapproval, albeit muted.
A chastened Congress
Having realised how it paid a heavy prize for competing with the BJP on the Hindutva pitch in the assembly election, a chastened state Congress seems to have no space for either Kamal Nath or his brand of politics.
The Congress doesn’t stand to lose much, should Kamal Nath leave the party with a few MLAs in tow. That will not alter the basic fact that it is the main opposition party in the assembly. The next assembly election is due in 2028 and by then political dynamics will have changed unpredictably.
As far as the coming Lok Sabha election is concerned, it couldn’t get worse for the party which had lost 28 out of 29 seats. If Nakul Nath stays in the Congress, he is sure to be renominated as the candidate from Chhindwara. If he opts to become the BJP candidate, the Congress will have one more seat to fight for.
Unencumbered of Kamal Nath’s political legacy, the state Congress has an opportunity to restore inner-party democracy in the organisation where ordinary workers can become enthusiastic stakeholders in shaping its future.