Only two phases of voting have taken place in the Lok Sabha elections and Congress has suffered a second setback. After Surat, the Congress candidate from Indore Lok Sabha seat has also pulled back. Party's candidate from Indore Lok Sabha seat, Akshay Kanti Bam has withdrawn his nomination. Not only this, he has broken ties with Congress and joined BJP. Senior BJP leader and cabinet minister in Madhya Pradesh government Kailash Vijayvargiya has claimed this.
Now some 14 candidates are in the fray from Indore. A total of 23 nominations were filed from here. 9 out of 23 have withdrawn their nominations. Therefore, now the contest for Indore Lok Sabha seat will be between 14 candidates. Now voting will be held as per the schedule for the remaining 14 candidates including BJP candidate and sitting MP Shankar Lalwani from Indore.
Akshay was going to contest the first election of his career.
Congress had given ticket to Akshay Kanti Bam from Indore Lok Sabha seat. He withdrew his nomination on Monday, days before voting in the constituency. Congress state president Jitu Patwari has accused BJP of intimidating, threatening and torturing Akshay Bam. Akshay Bam has not contested a single election in his political career so far.
Three cases going on against Akshay Kanti
Three separate cases are going on on Akshay Kanti bomb. Bam has also mentioned this in the election affidavit. In one of these cases, the court had recently extended section 307 of attempt to murder against Bam. In the affidavit, Bam had declared his total property to be Rs 57 crore. A businessman by profession, Bam's annual income is Rs 2.63 crore. He also keeps 41 kg silver and 275 grams gold.
BJP expressed confidence of big victory
Congress had fielded him from Indore at a time when many party workers, including three former MLAs, had switched sides and joined BJP before the Lok Sabha elections. Indore is the largest constituency in the state in terms of number of voters, where there are 25.13 lakh voters. This time BJP has expressed confidence of winning the seat by a margin of eight lakh votes.
Nominations for the election on Indore Lok Sabha seat were filed till April 25. 29th April was the last day for withdrawal of nominations. Voting for the Lok Sabha elections in Indore will be held on May 13 and counting of votes will be completed on June 4.
What happened in Surat?
Recently, BJP's Mukesh Dalal was declared the unopposed winner from Surat Lok Sabha seat in Gujarat. The nomination of Congress candidate Nilesh Kumbhani on this seat was canceled a day earlier by the Returning Officer. The nomination was canceled citing irregularities in the signatures of his proposers. After the cancellation of nominations of Congress candidates, the remaining 8 candidates also withdrew their candidature. In such a situation, BJP candidate Mukesh Dalal was elected MP unopposed. The Election Commission also issued him a certificate of victory.
