BHOPAL: Deprived of a candidate to contest the May 13 Lok Sabha polls – following the withdrawal of papers by its official nominee and rejection of papers of its “substitute” candidate – the opposition Congress has decided to appeal to people to press the None of the Above (NOTA) option in Indore parliamentary constituency.
“We’re not like the BJP that has tarnished and murdered democracy in Indore. We believe in democracy, but won’t support any of the remaining candidates in fray or ask people to boycott the election. We appeal to the people of Indore to exercise the NOTA option to teach the BJP a befitting lesson in the May 13 LS polls,” state Congress president Jitu Patwari said on Thursday.
“The BJP which once took pride in itself as the party with difference is now a party which only believes in murdering democracy, by preventing opposition party candidates from contesting the polls. Never in the past has anything like this happened here, which is the country’s cleanest city with a rich heritage. But the BJP’s recent immoral act masterminded by the MP minister Kailash Vijayvargiya has tarnished democracy in the city,” Patwari said.
“The fight to save democracy is no longer just Congress’s fight, it’s the fight of every voter in Indore. We’ll take out rallies to awaken the Indore people against BJP murdering democracy. We won’t appeal to them to boycott the May 13 election, but will only request them to exercise NOTA to strengthen the fight against murder of democracy,” Patwari said.
The former MP minister, who hails from Indore only, further alleged that the BJP guided by Vijayvargiya wanted more candidates to drop out of the fray to ensure unopposed election of sitting MP and party candidate Shankar Lalwani. “Five such candidates were with me at my house to avert pressures in Indore to withdraw from the poll race.”
He added that on coming to know about the April 29 development, former Congress president Rahul Gandhi asked him (Patwari) why did eight-times ex-MP from Indore and former LS speaker Sumitra Mahajan, who has always sworn by the politics of purity, remain silent over the development.
On April 29, in a big jolt to the Congress, its official candidate from Indore seat Akshay Kanti Bam accompanied by BJP MLA Ramesh Mendola withdrew his nomination and joined the BJP a few hours later.