Senior Congress leader Kamal Nath on Saturday said a majority of people in India follow the Sanatan Dharma and accused the BJP of creating a controversy to divert attention from real issues.

Addressing a press conference with AICC in-charge for Madhya Pradesh Randeep Singh Surjewala here, Nath claimed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) tried to divert the attention of people before the 2019 elections as well by raking up issues like nationalism and surgical strike.

"India is a country where a majority of people follow Sanatan Dharma. However, the BJP is trying to divert the attention from real issues and hence brought up the Sanatan Dharma controversy," he said while responding to a query on remarks by some leaders of DMK, a member of the INDIA bloc, on the ancient faith.

The Madhya Pradesh Congress president also alleged the BJP was trying to change the narrative and issues as if they had taken a contract of religion.

"They feel stomach ache when I hold religious programmes in Chhindwara (Nath's home turf). We go to temples but don’t talk about it on political platforms,” the former chief minister said.

He said the BJP would try to divert the attention of people and only talk about Sanatan Dharma in the next three months, ahead of assembly elections.

When asked whether he would contest the upcoming polls or a bypoll later as he is being projected as the next chief ministerial face by Congress leaders, Nath said, “This will be decided by his party.”

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