After Surat, another jolt to Congress as its Indore candidate withdraws nomination

The Congress alleged that Bam withdrew his nomination under pressure and that he had been “intimidated, threatened and tortured in various ways”.

District Collector Ashish Singh said Monday was the last date for withdrawing nominations for the May 13 polls in Indore and “three candidates, including Congress’s Bam, withdrew their nominations today as per due procedure”. Earlier in the day, Bam, along with BJP MLA Ramesh Mendola, visited the District Collector’s office to withdraw his nomination.

This comes days after the Election Commission rejected the nomination of Congress’s Surat candidate, leading to BJP’s Mukesh Dalal winning the Lok Sabha seat unopposed. Congress candidate Nilesh Kumbhani’s nomination was rejected on April 21 after three of his proposers submitted affidavits to the Surat district election officer claiming that the signatures on the document were not theirs. The nomination form of the Congress’s substitute candidate had also been invalidated on the same grounds.

In Indore, Congress had pitted poll debutant Bam against incumbent BJP MP Shankar Lalwani. After Bam’s withdrawal, Congress leaders went into a huddle as the party looked for a suitable opposition candidate to back.

Responding to Bam’s withdrawal, state Congress president Jitu Patwari said that he had been charged under IPC section 307 (attempt to murder) just a few days ago. “He was intimidated, threatened, and tortured in various ways throughout last night and when his form was returned this morning, the message being given is that you, the public, should not use your right to vote. I ask that if you believe in democracy, then everyone should stand against this dictatorship,” Patwari said.

Bam had been campaigning in Indore until Sunday night and had even spoken to some Congress workers at 7 am Monday. When photographs of him with Vijayvargiya started circulating on social media later in the day, Congress leaders rushed to Bam’s residence, where they found a police contingent outside and missing Congress flags.

“He has been unreachable since morning. Bam was recently charged under a section 307 case. His family owns several private law and management colleges in the city and they were under investigation recently. This was the pressure applied on him by the BJP leadership. He should never have been given a ticket,” a senior Congress leader from Indore said.

In his election affidavit, Bam disclosed that there were three cases pending against him. Two of those were related to land disputes, and the third was a rash and negligent driving case registered in 2018.

On April 24, the day Bam filed his nomination, a district court framed charges against him and his father, Kantilal, under IPC section 307 (attempt to murder), which carries a 10-year prison sentence if convicted, in one of the land dispute cases. Bam and his father were summoned to appear in court on May 10.

During scrutiny of nomination papers, the BJP’s legal cell had raised an objection regarding Bam’s nomination not mentioning the addition of the attempt to murder charge, but poll officials overruled the objection as the charge was added on the day he filed his papers.

According to the court order adding the attempt to murder charge, the accused persons, including Bam and his father, had on October 4, 2017 “assaulted the complainant’s labourers, set fire to a soybean crop, used criminal force and instructed to open fire at the complainant”.

While BJP leaders said Bam switched over after being inspired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s guarantees, Congress leaders said the BJP had been putting pressure on him for some time. A Congress leader said Bam was also unhappy over increasing election expenses. “There are around 2,500 polling booths, and at the last minute, the expenses began rising. There was anger over that. But his departure caught everyone by surprise,” the leader said.

Former Chief Minister and BJP leader Shivraj Singh Chouhan said: “The condition of the Congress has become such that even candidates do not want to be in the party.”

BJP spokesperson Pankaj Chaturvedi told The Indian Express, “The Congress candidate has withdrawn his nomination. This is a failure of the Congress leadership. It’s a failure of their policies. Their vote bank politics, inheritance politics… has backfired. Congress workers were already leaving, and now the leaders have joined.”

Chaturvedi said allegations that the BJP had put pressure on Bam were “cheap excuses”. He said: “10 lakh leaders have left the party across India, and around 5 lakh in Madhya Pradesh alone. Can you pressure them all? The Congress leadership is going through a policy paralysis and leaders are joining the BJP as they believe in Modi’s guarantees.”

Hitesh Bajpai, another BJP spokesperson, claimed Bam “was disgruntled by the loot, exploitation and non-cooperation of senior Congress leaders”.