Congress LS Candidate from Indore Drops Out of Contest, Joins BJP

Bhopal: The Congress party faced a big shocker on Monday as its Lok Sabha candidate from Indore in Madhya Pradesh, Akshay Bam, dropped out of the contest and joined the BJP a few days before the voting.

Accompanied by BJP MLA Ramesh Mendola, he reached the Indore Collector’s office to withdraw his nomination.

Congress had chosen Bam to fight against the sitting BJP MP of Indore, Shankar Lalwani. Voting for the Indore Lok Sabha seat will be held on May 13.

Senior BJP leader and state cabinet minister Kailash Vijayvargiya declared Bam’s entry into the BJP through a post on X, in which he wrote, “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.”

On April 22, the BJP’s Mukesh Dalal clinched victory uncontested for the Surat Lok Sabha constituency as the nomination papers of Congress candidate got cancelled and other candidates, including one from the BSP, withdrew their nominations one after the other.