Congress Candidate of Indore Withdraws His Nomination, Joins BJP Before Polls

In a jolt to Congress ahead of polls, its Indore candidate Akshay Kanti Bam withdrew nomination and joined BJP, with party leaders welcoming his move citing ideological reasons.

Indore, Apr 29 - The Congress Party suffered a big blow ahead of Lok Sabha Election when its candidate from Indore Akshay Kanti Bam withdrew his nomination and joined the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday.

Bam with the BJP incumbent MLA Ramesh Mendola reached the district collector’s office and gave up his candidacy in the Indore constituency, which votes during the fourth phase on May 13.

The confirmation of the development, senior BJP leader and Madhya Pradesh cabinet minister Kailash Vijayvargiya expressed his happiness on the joining of Bam into the party. "I am happy to welcome Akshay Kanti Bam Ji as a Congress Lok Sabha candidate from Indore into the BJP under the leadership of PM Narendra Modi, national BJP president JP Nadda and state president VD Sharma," X (formerly Twitter) said in a post.

The BJP's legal cell had expressed its disapproval during the scrutiny process earlier, and the collector had disagreed and allowed his nomination. The hearing in the case has been scheduled for May 10, exactly three days ahead of the Indore elections.

The Congress party also witnessed its three other dummy candidates from Indore being disqualified.

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State Congress spokesperson Ameen ul khan Suri condemned party leadership for the choice of Bam as the candidate from the prestigious Indore seat. State president should be answerable for this. Bam had no political influence in Indore city. What drove the Congress party to nominate him for one of the most significant seats in Indore? He should not play with it because it's the matter of the shame for the Congress party in Madhya Pradesh," Suri said.

BJP MLA Ramesh Mendola, who was with Bam when he withdrew his candidature, said that the ex-Congress candidate had agreed to withdraw to support Bam's ideology.

Bam did not reply to a comment on his decision to resign from Congress and join the saffron party.