BJP leader Kailash Vijayvargiya with Congress candidate from Indore Lok Sabha seat Akshay Kanti Bam on Monday.
Credit: PTI Photo
In another jolt to Congress, its Lok Sabha candidate from the Indore constituency, Akshay Kanti Bam, withdrew his nomination on Monday, ahead of the May 13 polling,
Speaking to DH, days before he switched over to saffron camp, Bam had claimed despite the BJP’s claims, several of its achievements and schemes are not "poor-friendly".
“Look at Ayushman Bharat, does it cover the tests that need to be taken for the treatment to be done? The farmer is not getting the right MSP for his crop, and it is a sad state of affairs if 80 crore people need to get free ration – it shows that these people do not have jobs,” Bam had told DH earlier this week.
Claiming that Congress was showing its way with its "revolutionary" manifesto, he had said that Indore seat has had a history of throwing up surprises.
"Be it Kalyan Jain in 1977 or Sumitra Mahajan in 1989, there have been surprises in Indore. The city has given a chance to new faces to raise its voice in Parliament,” he told DH.
Ironically, both Jain and Mahajan had defeated key Congress leaders. In fact, Mahajan was elected to Lok Sabha for eight consecutive terms till 2014.
In 2019, the party had given the candidature to Shankar Lalwani, who had defeated the then Congress candidate Pankaj Sanghvi by a wide margin of 5.47 lakh votes.
Incidentally, Sangvi, along with key Congress leaders including Sanjay Shukla and Vishal Patel have also defected to the BJP recently.