India elections: Yet another opposition candidate against Modi's BJP withdraws

INDIA'S opposition Indian National Congress, which is aiming to prevent prime minister Narendra Modi to return power for the third successive term this year, received another major blow as its candidate from the Indore parliamentary constituency in the central state of Madhya Pradesh withdrew his constituency and reportedly joined the ranks in the opponent Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Sources in the election authorities confirmed that Akshay Kanti Bam, who was set to take on the sitting MP, Shankar Lalwani from the BJP, in Indore on May 13, left the electoral arena.

Kailash Vijayvargiya, a senior BJP leader from Madhya Pradesh and a top minister in the state government run by the BJP, also posted on X a picture of himself with Bam saying the latter was welcome to join the Hindu nationalist party.

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"Congress Lok Sabha candidate from Indore Akshay Kanti Bam is welcome in the BJP under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, party national president JP Nadda, Chief Minister Mohan Yadav and state president VD Sharma," he said in the post in Hindi.

Bam reportedly went to the authorities to retract his candidature. He was accompanied by BJP's state lawmaker Ramesh Mendola.

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Local Congress leaders expressed disappointment over the development and questioned the party's top leadership's decision to hand Bam an election ticket.

"I had warned about Akshay Bam to our party leaders. I had warned that he would withdraw his nomination. It pains us that party workers like us have been serving the Congress for years yet the ticket was given to people like him," a local Congress leader, Devendra Singh Yadav, was quoted as saying by NDTV.

The BJP's legal cell had objected to Bam's nomination for not mentioning an old land dispute case in the papers. It was, however, accepted by the poll officials.

Indore is a stronghold of the BJP which has been winning the constituency since 1989. Sumitra Mahajan, former speaker of the Lok Sabha or Lower House of the Indian parliament, had won it for eight consecutive times between 1989 and 2019 when Lalwani succeeded her.

This is the second instance of the Congress losing an election candidate ahead of elections. A few days ago, the nomination of its candidate from the Surat constituency in the western state of Gujarat, Nilesh Kumbhani, was rejected over technical reasons. The candidate, who was kept as an alternative, also faced the same outcome. Other candidates who were in fray withdrew their names, resulting in the BJP candidate's victory there, unopposed.

The results of the elections are officially due to be declared on June 4, three days after the seventh and final phase of the election is completed.