Bhopal: Madhya Pradesh Congress chief Jitu Patwari on Sunday evening sought to dispel speculation about Kamal Nath's possible switch to the BJP, claiming the senior leader had told him that he was not going anywhere.
"The BJP misuses the media and questions the integrity of a person and this has come to light. I had a talk with Kamal Nath ji who told me that the reports floating in the media were part of a conspiracy. He told me that he was a Congressman and will remain in the Congress," Patwari told PTI.
"His relationship with the Gandhi family is unshakable. He has lived with the ideology of Congress and will remain with it till the end. This is what he told me," the Congress leader said.
Asked why Nath was not himself putting forth his side, Patwari said the former chief minister would speak at the right time. "What I said was on his behalf," he claimed.
Nath and his son and Chhindwara MP Nakul Nath arrived in the national capital on Saturday afternoon. Nakul Nath has dropped Congress from his bio on social media. Around half a dozen Madhya Pradesh MLAs loyal to Kamal Nath reached Delhi on Sunday, accentuating the speculation that the father-son duo was set to join the ruling BJP.
In Madhya Pradesh capital Bhopal, Nath's party colleague Digvijaya Singh expressed confidence that his old friend would not forsake the party from where he began his political journey.
Meanwhile, in Delhi, Congress leader Sajjan Singh Verma, known to be close to Kamal Nath, met the former Madhya Pradesh chief minister. "I had a discussion with him. He was sitting with a chart on how Lok Sabha tickets will be distributed and what will be the caste equations. He (Nath) said 'My focus is to figure out what 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) and neither has he spoken on it with anyone," Verma said after meeting Nath. "When I said media people are saying you did not deny it (speculation), he (Nath) said media people raised it and they should answer," Verma said.
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