As the Congress tries to quell rumours about former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Kamal Nath's BJP switch, the party will send its senior leader to Bhopal on Tuesday to meet party MLAs.
AICC in-charge general secretary for the state Jitendra Singh is flying to the state today to gauge the on-ground situation in the backdrop of suspense over former CM Kamal Nath's next move, reported PTI. However, the party's official version is that Singh is in the state to hold meetings regarding the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra's MP leg.
A Congress MLA, considered a loyalist of Nath, confirmed the meeting but said the agenda was unclear. "I got a phone call to come over to Bhopal for a meeting. But, I was not told about the agenda of it," the MLA told PTI.
This comes as Kamal Nath continues to stay in Delhi despite the Congress senior leadership's staunch denial of his switch. Singh too dismissed reports around Kamal Nath's shift to the BJP, calling it "misinformation". He asserted that the former Madhya Pradesh chief minister will join in the Rahul Gandhi-led Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra in the state.
"Kamal Nath ji is a senior leader of our party. All these speculations have been made by the BJP and the media. I spoke to him yesterday (Sunday) and the day before yesterday (Saturday) also and we discussed the preparations of the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra," Singh told reporters at the Congress headquarters in Delhi.
Meanwhile, Sajan Singh Verma, a former Madhya Pradesh minister and a close aide of Kamal Nath, told reporters in Delhi on Monday that the question of Nath leaving the party, in which he has spent more than 40 years, does not arise. Verma said Kamal Nath and his son Nakul Nath are both not crossing over to the BJP and asserted that the latter will contest the Lok Sabha polls, likely to be held in April-May, from Chhindwara in Madhya Pradesh as the Congress candidate.
However, the PTI report added that though Kamal Nath initially planned to address the media directly, he later chose to communicate indirectly through his associate Verma.
Meanwhile, Congress leader Digvijaya Singh asserted on Tuesday that Kamal Nath's allegiance lies with Congress. "Kamal Nath is, was, and will remain in the Indian National Congress. Modigodimedia should stop spreading lies," he said in a post on 'X'.