Kamal Nath Considering Joining BJP, Told Congress He’s “Unhappy”: Sources

Amid a strong buzz of him quitting the Congress and joining the BJP, sources close to Kamal Nath have told NDTV that while he has not resigned from the party yet, he is unhappy with what is happening there and feels that it isn’t the same organisation that he had joined over four decades ago.

The sources said the former Madhya Pradesh chief minister, who arrived in Delhi on Saturday, has not met Union Home Minister Amit Shah or Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and has only heard leaders like BJP Madhya Pradesh President VD Sharma saying that he is welcome to join the BJP. 

Citing that people in Madhya Pradesh’s Chhindwara – a constituency he represented as an MP for nine terms –  want him to join the BJP to fast-track development, the senior Congress leader has said that the matter is under his consideration, the sources said. Kamal Nath’s son, Nakul Nath, is the MP from Chhindwara now and speculation is rife that he will also join the BJP along with his father. 

“Kamal Nath has conveyed his unhappiness to the Congress leadership. He feels that Rahul Gandhi is busy with the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra and the party is now being run by the likes of senior leaders Jairam Ramesh, KC Venugopal and Randeep Surjewala,” he said. 

When the sources were asked whether the cause of Mr Nath’s unhappiness was that he was not nominated for the Rajya Sabha polls, they said that was not true. The former chief minister, they said, had pushed for Ashok Singh’s nomination from Madhya Pradesh and did not want senior leader Meenakshi Natarajan, who was reportedly Rahul Gandhi’s pick for the Upper House.