If there's any such thing, will inform you first: Kamal Nath to media on talk of switch to BJP

NEW DELHI: Amid speculation that he could cross over to the BJP, senior Congress leader and former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Kamal Nath arrived in the national capital 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.

Asked if he is joining the BJP, Nath said, "If there would be any such thing, I would inform you first."

When a reporter asked if he was not denying a possible switch, Nath said, "It is not about denying, you are saying this, you people are getting excited. I am not getting excited, this side or that side, but if there would be any such thing, I would inform you first."

Over the past few days, Nath had been on a tour of his bastion Chhindwara, from where he had been an MP for nine terms. His son Nakul Nath won the seat in the 2019 polls, even as the BJP swept the remaining 28 seats in the state.

Asked about the speculation that Nath could cross over to the BJP, senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh said in Jabalpur earlier in the day, "I spoke to Kamal Nath at 10.30 pm yesterday, he is in Chhindwara."

"A person who started his political journey and stood with the Nehru-Gandhi family when Indira Gandhi was sent to jail by the Janata Party, do you think such a person will ever leave Congress and the Gandhi family?" Singh said.

Kamal Nath is said to be disgruntled over not getting a Rajya Sabha berth and also Rahul Gandhi being opposed to him since the party lost the assembly polls late last year.

Nath was replaced as the party's Madhya Pradesh unit chief following its rout in the assembly polls, in which the BJP retained power winning 163 seats in the 230-member House. The Congress managed to win just 66 seats.