In a major blow to the Congress in Madhya Pradesh before the third phase of polling, Akshay Kanti Bam, party’s candidate from Indore on Monday withdrew his nomination and joined the Bharatiya Janata Party.
The move, which gave the BJP candidate and sitting MP Shankar Lalwani a virtual walkover, comes just days after a local court issued directions to add IPC Section 307 (attempt to murder) in a land dispute case from 2007 against Mr. Bam and his father.
The Congress slammed the move and alleged that the democracy in the country was “under threat”.
Earlier in the day, Mr. Bam, accompanied by BJP MLA Ramesh Mendola, withdrew his nomination. Monday was the last day to withdraw the nominations for the third phase.
After joining the BJP, Mr. Bam said that he took the decision in national interest and for the Sanatana Dharma.
“Under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, (BJP president) J.P. Nadda, (Union Home Minister) Amit Shah and other senior leaders, I have now started walking the road of patriotism,” he said, speaking to presspersons, along with senior State BJP leaders such as Deputy Chief Minister Jagdish Devda and Minister Kailash Vijayvargiya.
Soon after Mr. Bam withdrew his nomination, Mr. Vijayvargiya also shared a picture with him on X to welcome him into the party fold.
Mr. Bam, who has never fought any election before, was given the ticket on the recommendation of M.P. Congress president Jitu Patwari, who himself hails from Indore. The move is also being seen as a setback to Mr. Patwari, who took the reins of the State unit after Congress’ debacle in 2023 Assembly polls.
Mr. Patwari’s tenure has also been marred by numerous defections to the BJP ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.
Congress national spokesperson Supriya Shrinate, at a press conference in Delhi, said, “It is not natural, normal or ordinary that somebody just withdraws their candidature and joins the BJP. When we say the democracy of India is under threat, this is the threat we speak about. The threat is to coax candidates, to put pressure on them to withdraw, to intimidate them, to intimidate their proposers and that is what is happening.”
Various BJP leaders, including former CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan, claimed that Congress leaders and workers had “lost confidence” in its leadership.
Indore is the second Lok Sabha constituency where the BJP has got a virtual walkover. Earlier, in Gujarat’s Surat, the BJP got a complete walkover after the nomination form of the Congress’ candidate Nilesh Kumbhani was rejected over discrepancies and other contestants also opted out of the race.
