It was the taint of anti-Sikh riots that stopped the BJP high command from negotiating with the Madhya Pradesh Congress leader, Kamal Nath. While Manish Tewari, Congress MP from Punjab vehemently denied any plans to switch allegiance to the BJP, insiders suggest that a senior Union Minister reached out to a television channel's group editor to orchestrate the fake narrative of Tewari's potential move to the BJP. However, speculation is rife that several Opposition MPs and MLAs are likely to join the BJP by the end of the month.

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In its pursuit of a formidable majority in the Lok Sabha (370 of the 540 Lok Sabha seats,)  the BJP has been actively courting prominent Opposition leaders and functionaries.

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Among its recent successful targets are Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, INLD chief Jayant Chaudhary, former Maharashtra Congress leader Ashok Chavan, and influential Congress tribal leader from Rajasthan, Mahindrajeet Singh. On Tuesday, Swami Prasad Maurya, a prominent OBC face from Uttar Pradesh, resigned from the Samajwadi Party, signaling a potential shift in his political affiliations. Two years ago he had dumped the BJP to cross over to SP. His daughter, Sanghmitra Maurya, incidentally is a BJP MP from Badaun in UP. Maurya is likely to float his own outfit.

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After the humiliating electoral defeat in Madhya Pradesh, the Congress leader Kamal Nath and his son Nakul Nath reportedly began flirting with the BJP.  The state unit president of the BJP in MP, VD Sharma went on record saying that "Kamal Nath was welcome to join the party." This met with internal opposition, particularly from Sikh leaders within the BJP. This resistance prompted the BJP to shelve its plans to embrace Kamal Nath into its fold, although the door remains ajar for his son, Nakul Nath, a sitting Congress MP from Chhindwara, sources revealed.

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Not willing to take chances, and amid speculation of a potential defection, the Congress has launched a preemptive effort to retain Nakul Nath's allegiance.

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Congress general secretary, Jitendra Singh, embarked on a tour of Madhya Pradesh to gauge the party sentiment and reassure Nakul Nath of his pivotal role in the upcoming elections. Singh said on Tuesday that "he (Nakul Nath) is a strong candidate from Chhindwara and will definitely contest the elections."  He dismissed speculations of Nakul Nath joining the BJP saying-"these rumours were being spread by the BJP. There's no truth in such rumours."

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Nakul Nath, incidentally, is the only Congress MP from MP.

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Similarly, murmurs of Congress Anandpur Sahib MP Manish Tewari's inclination towards the BJP have also surfaced. Tewari was a member of G23 - a group of dissenters who demanded a complete overhaul of the organisation in 2020.  So far, Tewari and sources close to him have dismissed the rumours as "rubbish."

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The Tewari camp claimed that after the MP "tore apart" the so called "White Paper brought out by the ruling party against the Congress led UPA rule", a senior Union Minister reportedly got in touch with a group editor of an English television channel and "planted" the story of Tewari's possible cross over to the saffron camp. With a notable political career spanning two terms as an MP and a stint as the Minister of Information and Broadcasting in the UPA 2.0 government, Tewari so far remains a steadfast member of the Congress fold.