Manish Tiwari's office dismisses rumors of leaving Cong for BJP as baseless

Bhopal: Amid reports that Madhya Pradesh chief minister and veteran Congress leader Kamal Nath would leave the party along with his son to join the BJP, it has emerged that the party's national spokesperson Manish Tiwari has held talks with BJP central leadership ahead of his entry to the saffron camp.

However, the office of the Lok Sabha MP from Anantpur Sahib in Punjab later dismissed the rumours as baseless.

According to some news reports, however, BJP leaders held talks with Tiwari and indicated that he would be fielded from Ludhiana.

Reports of his possible switch comes amid talk that cricketer-turned-politician Navjyot Singh Sidhu too would join the BJP along with three of his loyalists next week.

The former PCC chief had faced severe criticism from Congress state leadership for organising meetings and rallies without official approvals.

Kamal Nath, son to leave Congress
Amid speculation that Congress veteran Kamal Nath may join BJP, his MP son Nakul Nath on Saturday dropped 'Congress' from his bio on social media.

Nakul's move has added fuel to rumours swirling for the last few days that he, along with his father, are defecting to the BJP. Nakul's bio on X now identifies him only as a Member of Parliament, Chhindwara (MP).

Nakul is the MP from Chhindwara, the pocket borough of Kamal Nath, who has represented the constituency nine times in the past.

In Indore, senior Nath's staunch supporter and former minister Sajjan Singh Verma also removed Congress from his social media bio.

The buzz over Kamal Nath's possible switch to the BJP grew louder on Saturday with the former Madhya Pradesh chief minister telling reporters in New Delhi if there would be any such thing, he would inform the media first.

Kamal Nath, the sitting MLA from the Chhindwara seat, was removed as MP Congress chief in the wake of the Congress' crushing defeat at the hands of BJP in the last Assembly elections.

He is said to be disgruntled over not getting a Rajya Sabha berth and also Rahul Gandhi has been opposed to him since the party lost the assembly polls late last year.

(With PTI inputs)