In a major blow to the Congress in Madhya Pradesh, its Indore Lok Sabha seat candidate Akshay Kanti Bam withdrew his nomination on Monday, a fortnight before polling in the constituency. After withdrawing his nomination, Bam reached BJP office to join the party and later in a photo released on social media, Bam was seen along with MP Deputy Chief Minister Jagdish Devda, State Cabinet Minister Kailash Vijayvargiya and other party leaders.
Monday was the last day for withdrawal of nomination in the Indore Lok Sabha seat, where polling will be held on May 13. Indore Collector Ashish Singh confirmed that Bam has withdrawn his nomination. Bam, accompanied by local BJP MLA Ramesh Mendola, reached the collector’s office and withdrew his papers.
“Congress Lok Sabha candidate from Bam is welcome to the BJP under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, party national president JP Nadda, Chief Minister Mohan Yadav and State president VD Sharma,” Vijayvargiya said.
Police have been deployed outside the house of Bam in Patrakar Colony. Congress had fielded Bam (45), against sitting BJP MP Shankar Lalwani (62) from the Indore Lok Sabha seat, which is a stronghold of the saffron party. Bam has not contested a single election in his political career so far.
The Congress offered him the opportunity to contest from Indore at a time when several party workers, including three former MLAs of the party, have switched sides and joined the BJP ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. Indore, the largest constituency in the state in terms of number of voters, has 25.13 lakh electors. The BJP has expressed confidence of winning the seat by a margin of eight lakh votes this time.
Asked about the development, Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate said, “The gentleman in question has multiple universities and colleges in the state that we spoke about. One of the charges slapped against him was of murder. It is not natural, normal or ordinary that somebody just withdraws their candidature and joins the BJP.”
She said those who question the party on where is the threat to democracy, signifies that there is a “threat to democracy”.
