Surat Replay: Congress candidate switches to BJP in Indore

In a big setback to Congress, its Lok Sabha candidate from Indore, Akshay Bam, dropped out of the race and joined the BJP today, just days before the constituency goes to polls. Accompanied by BJP MLA Ramesh Mendola, he visited the Collector's office to retract his candidacy.

Congress had pitted Mr Bam against the incumbent BJP MP of Indore, Shankar Lalwani. Voting for the Indore parliamentary constituency will take place in the fourth phase of the ongoing elections on May 13.

The development was confirmed after Madhya Pradesh Minister and BJP leader Kailash Vijayvargiya posted a picture of Bamb, and wrote 'Welcome to the party'.

Following his withdrawal, local Congress leaders expressed their disappointment and questioned the party high command's decision to hand Mr Bam a ticket in the elections.

During the scrutiny of nominations, the BJP's legal cell had raised an objection on Mr Bam's nomination form for not mentioning the addition of section 307 of IPC in a 17-year-old land dispute case. But poll officials overruled the objection and accepted his nomination as the section was added on the day of filing of the nomination.

This latest move comes just days after the nomination form of Congress leader Nilesh Kumbhani for the Surat Lok Sabha seat was rejected after his three proposers came forward to the district returning officer, stating that the signatures on the document did not belong to them. Similarly, the nomination form of Suresh Padsala, the Congress' alternative candidate for Surat, suffered the same fate due to similar reasons.

On April 22, the BJP's Mukesh Dalal clinched victory uncontested for the Surat Lok Sabha constituency. This came after all other candidates, including one from the BSP, withdrew their nominations one after the other.