Bhopal: Congress veteran Kamal Nath is unperturbed about exits of leaders from the party ahead of the Lok Sabha polls in Madhya Pradesh, saying that the defectors were associated with the BJP in one way or another, including business.
The nine-time MP scotched rumours of joining the BJP and asserted that he had never thought about leaving the party nor was in touch with anyone from the opposition camp.
Nath has been on the campaign for Congress candidates in Madhya Pradesh where the BJP had won all the 29 Lok Sabha seats barring Chhindwara that voted for his son Nakul Nath in 2019.
“I said, you (defectors) do what you feel like. Without going into the reasons, they were themselves associated with the BJP in business and all other kinds of things. I do not want to get into that as in the end, it is not the leaders that matter but the people that matter. And the question is how did people react to it,” Nath said when asked about the ongoing defections and not being able to stop the exits from the party for the past two months..
Some of the biggest faces to exit from the Congress are from Kamal Nath’s bastion like Chhindwara mayor Vikram Ahake, Amarwara MLA Kamlesh Shah, former Chhindwara MLA Deepak Saxena and his youngest son Ajay Saxena.
Notably, Deepak Saxena had resigned from Chhindwara after Kamal Nath had become the Madhya Pradesh CM in 2018. But 15 months later, Kamal Nath resigned from the top post in March 2020 after senior leader Jyotiraditya Scindia defected with nearly two dozen MLAs to the BJP.
The latest series of defections also come on the heels of Nath’s rumoured move to the BJP in February.
“Nothing happened, it all started in the press. People did come to me from Chhindwara saying why don’t you join the BJP. I said, ‘Haan theek hai sunliya’ (gave them an audience and heard) to get rid of them.. ‘Haan theek hai sochte hai (fine, I will consider it)’.. Just to ward them off and that started media speculation,” Nath told ThePrint.
“And I never ever said I was talking to the BJP; I never ever said I was going to join the BJP. When the press asked, I said, ‘I never said this, you correct yourselves; you don’t have to ask me to correct it’. I know so many BJP leaders, but I was never in touch with them from the point of view of joining… No.”
Voting will take place on 19 April, 26 April, 7 May and 13 May in Madhya Pradesh. Chhindwara will vote on 19 April where the fight is between Nakul Nath and BJP’s Vivek Bunty Sahu.
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‘Nothing is perfect’
Having been with the Congress for the past five decades, and famously called as the third son of Indira Gandhi, Nath is frank about what he feels is “wrong” with the party.
“Everything is not wrong with the Congress; there is nothing that is perfect. Let’s not say that… There are things to be rectified. We have to look at organisations. Politics has changed very much in the last 40 years, and this change has to be recognised, accepted and acted upon,” he said.
“Politics has also become very localised. It is not a global issue; it is not a national issue; it is a local issue. This localised politics must be understood. Today, there is social media; previously there was no social media. And five years ago, there were 25 percent people on social media. Today, 99 percent are on social media. People are more aware.”
Commenting on the fall of his government in 2020, Nath alleged that the MLAs who left with Scindia chose to leave for the money being offered.
“I don’t want to say that they were Scindia loyalists. They went there for money and they would call me from Bangalore and tell me, ‘today, we got five crores; tomorrow we are going to get this much’. One of them also came and told me that. ‘I got five crores, can you keep it for me? But, there are certain things that I decided that I would not do in principle. I was not hungry to be the CM, but I must say that I want to be ethically, morally and principally correct.”
As the BJP’s gambit of hiking the monthly sum of Rs 1,000 to Rs 3,000 under the Ladli Behan Scheme proved a masterstroke in the state election, Nath asserted that this would backfire on the ruling party.
“I was the first one to announce that when our government comes, we will give Rs 1,500. Then they announced Rs 1,200 and then they said of making it to Rs 1,500 and going up to Rs 3,000. They have not been able to do that. Women are angry about that. It will now be counter productive,” he said.
And even as pre-polls surveys predicting a return of the NDA government, Nath commenting on the relevancy of the Gandhi family for the Congress.
“Of course, they are an integral part of the Congress and so is Priyanka Gandhi. They (people) ask me here, ‘why don’t you call Rahul Gandhi here’. So I said for what; they said, ‘Nahi hum milna chahte hai, unki baat sunna chahte hai’ (we want to meet and hear them). This (question on relevancy of) Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi is largely an urban issue, a Lutyens Delhi issue.” he said, before as plunged back to campaign for his son Nakul Nath in home turf of Chhindwara.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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