In a major jolt to the Congress in Madhya Pradesh, its Indore candidate Akshay Kanti Bam on Monday withdrew his nomination papers.

Senior BJP leader hailing from Indore and State Cabinet minister Kailash Vijayvargiya declared this on his social media account saying,     “Congress Lok Sabha candidate from Indore Akshay Kanti Bam ji is welcomed in BJP under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, national president Shri J PNadda, Chief Minister Mohan Yadav and state president V D Sharma.”

Later, within minutes, the news spread like fire all over the news channels and social edia accounts. State BJP Spokesman Rajneesh Agrawal said, “The Congress candidate has withdrawn his nomination. This is the failure of Congress leadership. It is the failure of their policies. Their vote bank politics, inheritance politics… has backfired. Congress karyakartas were already leaving, and now the leaders have joined.”

BJP spokesperson Hitesh Bajpai claimed that Bam was disgruntled by the loot, exploitation and non-cooperation of senior Congress leaders.

He claimed that the demand for lakhs of rupees (for tickets) and not allowing national Congress leaders to come to Indore became the reason for his resentment. Akshay Bam was also upset about the practice of selling tickets in exchange for money.

The Congress spokespersons have not commented on the issue so far. Congress leaders claimed the BJP had been applying pressure by reviving a previous criminal case.

Bajpai termed them as lame excuses. “Ten lakh leaders have left the party across India, and around 5 lakh in Madhya Pradesh alone. Can you pressure them all? The Congress leadership is going through a policy paralysis and leaders are joining the BJP as they believe in Modi’s guarantees,” he said.

Forty six-year-old Bam had his schooling from Indore’s noted Daly College. He was graduated in Commerce from Mumbai’s Sydenham College in 1998 before returning to Indore to pursue LLB from Devi Ahilya University and as well as an MBA in Personnel Administration. Bam eventually completed his PhD in management from Shridhar University in Pilani in 2022.

In his affidavit, Bam has mentioned that there are three cases pending against him. The first case was registered on the basis of a private complaint in a land dispute case, which Bam has claimed is a false case. The other two cases were registered in Indore. The first FIR was registered in 2007, where it was alleged that Bam and his family members purchased the land of one Yunus Khan, and later had a land dispute following which the case was filed. The second FIR was registered in 2018 pertaining to an offence related to rash and negligent driving in 2018.

He is known to be involved in running local law and management colleges in Indore. He has been active in the Congress for about 10 years. He had earlier staked claim for a ticket from the Congress in the Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections, but was unsuccessful.

notably, earlier this month, in Gujarat’s Surat, the Congress candidate had suspended its nominee, Nilesh Kumbhani, whose nomination form was rejected by the Election Commission over discrepancies, leading to BJP’s Mukesh Dalal winning the Lok Sabha seat unopposed.

His form was rejected on April 21 after his three proposers submitted affidavits to the Surat district election officer Saurabh Pardhi claiming that the signatures on the document were not theirs. The nomination form of Suresh Padsala, the Congress’s substitute candidate in Surat, was also invalidated on the same grounds.