Victiory Before Election: Congress Candidate Withdraws from Indore Lok Sabha Race, Joins BJP
Indore: In a significant blow to the Congress party, its candidate for the Lok Sabha from Indore, Akshay Bam, has withdrawn from the race and joined the BJP just days before the constituency heads to the polls. Accompanied by BJP MLA Ramesh Mendola, Bam visited the Collector’s office to officially retract his candidacy.
Congress had fielded Mr. Bam against the incumbent BJP MP of Indore, Shankar Lalwani. The voting for the Indore parliamentary constituency is scheduled in the fourth phase of the ongoing elections on May 13.
Senior BJP leader and state cabinet minister Kailash Vijayvargiya extended a warm welcome to Mr. Bam in a post on social media.
“Welcome to the BJP, Mr. Akshay Kanti Bam, the Congress Lok Sabha candidate from Indore, under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, party national president JP Nadda, Chief Minister Mohan Yadav, and state president VD Sharma,” Vijayvargiya stated.
Following his withdrawal, local Congress leaders expressed their disappointment and raised questions about the party high command’s decision to nominate Mr. Bam for the elections.
During the scrutiny of nominations, the BJP’s legal cell objected to Mr. Bam’s nomination form for failing to mention the addition of section 307 of IPC in a 17-year-old land dispute case. However, the poll officials dismissed the objection and accepted his nomination since the section was added on the day of filing the nomination.
This development follows closely after the rejection of Congress leader Nilesh Kumbhani’s nomination form for the Surat Lok Sabha seat, as his three proposers came forward to the district returning officer, denying that the signatures on the document belonged to them. Similarly, the nomination of Suresh Padsala, Congress’ alternative candidate for Surat, met the same fate due to similar reasons.
Mr. Kumbhani, a former Surat corporator, had previously contested the 2022 Assembly polls in the Kamrej constituency but was unsuccessful.
On April 22, the BJP’s Mukesh Dalal secured victory uncontested for the Surat Lok Sabha constituency, as all other candidates, including one from the BSP, withdrew their nominations successively.
