Kamal Nath not leaving Cong: Digvijaya

Bhopal: Amid the buzz over senior Congress leader Kamal Nath's possible switch to the BJP, his party colleague Digvijaya Singh said on Sunday that the veteran leader started his political journey from the grand old party and he 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 started his political innings from Congress and won't leave the party, he asserted. Nath, a nine-time MP from Chhindwara and currently MLA from the seat, was removed as the party's state president following the Congress' dismal performance in the November Assembly polls.

The 77-year-old Congress leader arrived in the national capital on Saturday afternoon. His son and MP Nakul Nath dropped Congress from his bio on social media.

Kamal in touch with Rahul

Kamal Nath has spoken to Rahul Gandhi on phone and discussed the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra which will enter Madhya Pradesh soon, and the veteran leader has not made any decision on leaving the party, said Nath’s close aide and former minister Sajjan Singh Verma. “I had a discussion with him (Kamal Nath). He said that right now his focus is on how the caste equations will be on 29 Lok Sabha seats in Madhya Pradesh. He said that he has not thought about anything like that (of leaving the party)..." Verma told the reporters after meeting Kamal Nath.