In body blow for Gandhis and Congress, Kamal Nath likely to cross over to BJP with MP-son

In what will be another setback to the Congress on the eve of the Lok Sabha elections, party veteran leader Kamal Nath and his son and Lok Sabha MP Nakul are likely to quit the party and join the BJP, sources said.

A former Chief Minister and nine-time MP, Kamal Nath, who has worked with three generations of the Gandhis, is set to end his over 50-year association with the Congress at a time when the party is bracing for one of its toughest electoral battles till date.

Nath, 77, will be the tenth former CM of the Congress to leave the party in the last 10 years, joining the ranks of Ashok Chavan – who switched to the BJP earlier this week – Mukul Sangma (Meghalaya), Amarinder Singh (Punjab), Ghulam Nabi Azad (Jammu and Kashmir), Vijay Bahuguna (Uttarakhand), late Ajit Jogi (Chhattisgarh), S M Krishna (Karnataka), Narayan Rane (Maharashtra) and Giridhar Gamang (Odisha) who returned to the party recently.

Amid speculation of his switch to the BJP, Nath reached Delhi from Chhindwara Saturday afternoon. Asked whether he was joining the BJP, he told reporters, “Why are you all getting excited. If there is something like that I will inform you first.”

On whether he was denying it, Nath said, “Inkaar ki baat nahin hai (this is not about denying it). This (that he was switching sides) you are saying. You are getting excited. I am not excited, iss taraf ya uss taraf (either way).”

His son Nakul’s move to drop “Congress” from his social media accounts, however, fuelled the speculation.

Nath’s exit would be a huge blow for the Gandhi family given his close personal ties, going back to the days of Indira Gandhi. Nath, a Doon School mate of Sanjay Gandhi, joined the Youth Congress in the 1970s and soon became a key member of Sanjay’s inner