With voting just a fortnight away, Congress’s Indore candidate Akshay Bam withdrew his nomination for contesting Lok Sabha polls on Monday and he has reportedly joined the Bharatiya Janata Party. Bam was contesting polls for the first time this election.
Indore Collector Ashish Singh confirmed that Bam has withdrawn his nomination. Senior BJP leader and state cabinet minister Kailash Vijayvargiya posted a picture on his X account in which Bam was seen sitting in a car with him. "Congress Lok Sabha candidate from Indore Akshay Kanti Bam is welcome to the BJP under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, party national president J.P. Nadda, Chief Minister Mohan Yadav and state president V.D. Sharma," Vijayvargiya tweeted.
Local BJP MLA Ramesh Mendola was also seen accompanying them in the car. Mendola is a trusted associate of Vijayvargiya.
The Congress had fielded Bam (45), a newbie in the poll arena, against sitting BJP MP Shankar Lalwani (62) from the Indore Lok Sabha seat, which is a stronghold of the saffron party. Polling will be held on May 13 in Indore.
Meanwhile, police have been deployed outside Bam's house in Patrakar Colony. Local Congress leaders started gathering outside his house.
The Congress offered him the opportunity to contest from Indore at a time when several party workers, including three former MLAs of the party, had 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 had expressed confidence of winning the seat by a margin of eight lakh votes this time.
Congress leader Subhashini Sharad Yadav told PTI, “This has happened out of fear. For a healthy democracy, it is important that all the parties and people from different communities get participation. It happened in Surat as well as Indore. The party is not weak. It is evident how democracy is being murdered."
-wth PTI inputs.
