With the switching of Congress candidate Akshay Kanti Bam to the Bharatiya Janata Party in Indore Lok Sabha constituency, debate about NOTA and selection of candidates has taken centre stage in political campaigns. Congress’ appeal to voters to opt for NOTA in the Indore Lok Sabha poll. To counter, Congress’ campaign BJP swung in to action and it was decided in high level meeting that BJP will encourage voters to participate in election and elect candidate not NOTA. Since Congress has no candidate for this seat and the action of BJP is being seen and termed against democracy by a section of discerning people. Voice against this action has also being raised from within the saffron camp. Since senior BJP leader and eight times MP Sumitra Mahajan questioned the move saying “what was the necessary to welcome Akshay Bam in the BJP? The party was already in good position on this seat.” There are a total of 14 candidates in the fray, including BJP’s sitting MP Shankar Lalwani. Nine of the candidates are contesting as independents. Deputy Chief Minister Jagdish Devda has said the BJP will encourage the people to come out in large numbers to exercise their franchise.

 

Polling in Indore, where the Congress is out of race after its candidate withdrew his nomination, is scheduled on May 13. After the meeting on Sunday, Deputy CM Devda, who is the in-charge of BJP’s Indore cluster, told reporters, “It was discussed in the meeting that maximum voting should be held in the Indore Lok Sabha constituency.” The BJP will motivate people to come out in large numbers to vote and make the party win the Indore Lok Sabha seat with an overwhelming majority, he said. Senior BJP leader and former Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan said, “There was a discussion in the meeting on how to increase the voting percentage in Indore. We want Indore to become the number one Lok Sabha seat in the country in terms of voting.” State Cabinet Ministers Kailash Vijayvargiya and Tulsiram Silawat and local BJP MLAs attended the meeting held at the local party office. Congress candidate from Indore, Akshay Kanti Bam, withdrew his nomination on April 29 and joined the BJP. Following this, the Congress has been appealing to voters to press the NOTA (None of the Above) option on the electronic voting machines “to teach the BJP a lesson”.

 

The BJP has renominated Lalwani from the Indore Lok Sabha seat. There are 25.13 lakh eligible voters in Indore, which witnessed 69 per cent polling in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Vijayvargiya has said the BJP aims to win the Indore Lok Sabha seat this time by a margin of more than eight lakh votes. Indore is BJP’s bastion since last 35 years it is represented by BJP. It is learnt that Akshay Bam episode Kailash Vijayvargiya and Ramesh Mandola has played crucial role. Duo have drawn flak for this action. As Indore is strong hold of BJP. BJP sprung a surprise and regained its bastion in Malwa Nimar including Indore where all the nine assembly seats won by BJP in recently concluded assembly elections. In the Assembly elections, BJP seats rose to 47 from 32. Experts opined that Indore episode may cast a shadow at other seats of the region.