After Surat setback

The Congress chose him at a time a string of party workers, including three former MLAs, have switched to the BJP in Madhya Pradesh.

Bam is known to be involved in running local law and management colleges in Indore. He has been active in the Congress for about 10 years.

He had earlier staked claim for a ticket from the Congress in the Madhya Pradesh Assembly

elections, but was unsuccessful in getting one.

According to an agency report, last week a local court ordered the police to add an attempt to murder charge to a 17-year-old land-grabbing case against Bam. The alleged victim, Yunus Patel, approached the court on April 5 with a request to add IPC’s section 307, which a judicial magistrate accepted on April 24.

The court directed the Madhya Pradesh police to add this section against Bam, his father Kantilal Bam and others. The case was registered in October 2007.

Besides Indore, seven more seats in Madhya Pradesh will go to the polls on May 13, concluding elections to the state’s 29 seats. In Indore, while nine candidates have withdrawn their nominations, 14 contestants are still in the fray. The development is particularly embarrassing for the Congress as Indore is the home district of the party’s state president Jitu Patwari.

The selection of Bam as the candidate from the Indore LS seat also puts a question on the system of scrutiny of nominees of the party.

Political analysts term it as an example of utter carelessness on the part of Congress which failed to carry out an effective background check of the candidate.

Bam, who went to the returning officer at the Indore collectorate with the BJP MLA Ramesh Mendola, a hardcore supporter of Vijayvargiya, withdrew his nomination for the Lok Sabha seat.

Earlier this month, in Gujarat’s Surat, the Congress candidate had suspended its nominee, Nilesh Kumbhani, whose nomination form was rejected by the Election Commission over discrepancies, leading to BJP’s Mukesh Dalal winning the Lok Sabha seat unopposed.

Vijayvargiya is considered an influential leader in the politics of the Malwa-Nimar region of the state. Earlier, Congress leader Pankaj Sanghvi, who was the party candidate from the Indore seat in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, joined the BJP along with three former MLAs of the grand

old party due to the efforts of Vijayvargiya.

Earlier, INDIA bloc’s Samajwadi Party candidate for the Khajuraho Lok Sabha seat of the state poll officer had rejected Meera Yadav’s nomination. In the Khajuraho LS seat, BJP state president VD Sharma is the party candidate. The voting was conducted on this seat on April 26 during the second phase of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

The local Congress leaders started gathering outside Bam’s residence.

Taking security measures, police have been deployed in the area.

Reacting to the surprise development, the Congress said there is a “threat to democracy” and wondered if there is a free and fair poll when the Election Commission “looks the other way” while candidate after candidate is being “intimidated”.

Asked about the development, Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate said: “The gentleman in question has multiple universities and colleges in the state that we spoke about. One of the charges slapped against him was of murder. It is not natural, normal or ordinary that somebody just withdraws their candidature and joins the BJP.”

“When we say democracy of India is under threat, this is the threat we speak about. The threat is to coax candidates, to put pressure on them to withdraw, to intimidate them, to intimidate their proposers and that is what is happening,” she alleged at a press conference at the AICC headquarters here.

She said those who question the party on where the threat to democracy is, this signifies that there is a “threat to democracy”.

“When intimidation is of the kind that people are having to withdraw from electoral contests, where is a free and fair election. Where is a free and fair election when the prime minister delivers a hate speech but he is not held responsible, the notice goes to the party president, where is a free and fair election when the Election Commission looks the other way when candidate after candidate is being intimidated,” Shrinate said.