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In a major setback to Congress, the party’s candidate for Indore Lok Sabha constituency in Madhya Pradesh Akshay Kanti Bamb on Monday withdrew his nomination.The Congress candidate went to the local returning officer’s office along with BJP MLA Ramesh Mandola in the afternoon to withdraw his candidature.State minister and senior BJP leader Kailash Vijayvargiya later posted a photograph on his X, formerly twitter, account showing him in the company of Mr Bamb.He said that the BJP welcomed him into the party.Eight other candidates (all independents) in the seat withdrew their candidature, leaving total 14 candidates including BJP nominee and incumbent MP Shankar Lalwani to remain in the fray.Indore is going to polls in the fourth phase of elections in Madhya Pradesh along with eight other seats on May 13.April 29 was the nomination withdrawal day for the fourth round of elections in the state.Incidentally, Mr Bamb hails from the home town of state Congress president Jitu Patwari and is said to be his close confidant.Mr Patwari meanwhile accused BJP of taking recourse to coercive measures to force Mr Bamb to withdraw his candidature.“Mr Bamb was subjected to harassment by the BJP to force him to withdraw the nomination. An additional section under Indian Penal Code (IPC) was added to an old case to put pressure on him to withdraw candidature. This clearly indicates that democracy in the country is in danger”, he said.Meanwhile, sources said that Congress is seriously planning to extend support to one of the 13 independent candidates currently in the fray from the seat to take on the BJP.Chief minister Mohan Yadav however said that Congress candidates were forced to join the fray in the LS polls against their will by the party fearing defeat.He also demanded resignation of PCC president Mr Patwari for the resignation of a large number of Congress leaders including Mr Bamb from the party in the recent past.Earlier this month, nomination of the Opposition alliance candidate from Khajuraho LS seat in the state, Meera Yadav of Samajwadi Party (SP) was rejected over some discrepancy, forcing Congress to extend its support to the All India Forward Bloc (AIFB) candidate in the constituency R B Prajapati to take on BJP.State BJP president Vishnu Dutt Sharma was seeking re-election in the Khajuraho LS seat which went to polls in the second phase polling in the state on April 26.In a similar incident, nomination of candidate for Surat Lok Sabha seat in Gujarat was rejected over some discrepancy, leading to election of BJP candidate in the seat Mukesh Dalal, unopposed.
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