CAN KAMAL NATH STAGE A COMEBACK?

HOW THE CONGRESS LEADER MISSED THE PLOT TO OUST HIM AS CHIEF MINISTER OF MADHYA PRADESH AND WHAT IT WILL TAKE FOR HIM TO RETURN TO POWER

- Raj Chengappa and Kaushik Deka with Rahul Noronha in Bhopal

A day after he resigned as the chief minister of Madhya Pradesh, Kamal Nath flew into Delhi and was ensconced in his residence at 1, Tughlaq Road, from where over the years he has fought and won many an electoral battle for the Congress as well as played a role in the downfall of a couple of opposition-led central governments. This March, in a bitter twist of irony, he found himself at the receiving end, blindsided by a colleague 24 years his junior. It cost him the hard-earned chief ministership of a state that the Congress won just 15 months ago.

In his study, pictures of key members of the Nehru-Gandhi family whom he has worked with adorn the wall behind his desk. The one that finds centre stage is of Sanjay Gandhi, his Doon School buddy and political mentor. It was as one of Sanjay’s stormtroopers that a young Kamal Nath cut his political teeth. After playing a role in staying the arrest of Indira Gandhi by a special court in 1979, he was rewarded with a ticket the next year to contest the Chhindwara Lok Sabha seat, which covers the largest district in Madhya Pradesh. Nath went on to win the seat nine times before making way for his son Nakul in the 2019 Lok Sabha election. Significantly, of the 29 seats that the Congress contested in the state in the general election, it won only one—Chhindwara. The other 28 went to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).