“Indira Gandhi’s third son!” The sentence reverberated from Bhopal to New Delhi in the last few days with Madhya Pradesh politics going for a storm amid speculations that former Congress Chief Minister Kamal Nath was going to join the BJP.
The sentence, used by various Congress leaders as an emotional outreach to Mr. Nath, was a reference to the 1980 Lok Sabha elections when he was contesting from M.P.’s Chhindwara seat for the first time. In December, 1979, Indira Gandhi had come for a poll rally and had said, “He (Mr. Nath) is my third son. Please, take care of him.”
Mr. Nath won the election, increasing the Congress’ margin from 2,369 in 1977 to 70,131 in 1980.
