BHOPAL : The opposition Congress’s public appeal to press the NOTA button on the electronic voting machines in Madhya Pradesh’s Indore Lok Sabha constituency is intensifying.
Led by former minister Sajjan Singh Verma, a march was carried out by Congress from the Veer Savarkar statue to Dr BR Ambedkar’s statue in Indore’s Tukoganj area on Friday evening.
The march was originally slated to be led by former chief minister Digvijaya Singh, but ultimately, it was Kamal Nath-loyalist Sajjan Singh Verma who led the event.
The march occurred just a day after a similar event from Pardeshipura to the Patnipura area, which is part of the state’s minister and senior BJP MLA Kailash Vijayvargiya’s home constituency.
Notably, the Congress is accusing Vijayvargiya of masterminding the withdrawal of nomination papers by Congress candidate Akshay Kanti Bam for the Indore seat on April 29.
While Vijayvargiya’s loyalist, Indore-2 MLA Ramesh Mendola, accompanied the Congress candidate to the Indore district collectorate for withdrawing the nomination papers, Vijayvargiya waited outside in the car.
With the official candidate having withdrawn his papers and the nomination of the “substitute” candidate, Moti Singh Patel, being rejected, the Congress has decided to opt for NOTA as its de facto nominee in Indore, where elections will be held in the fourth phase on May 13.
The Congress has also been distributing “Vote For NOTA to Save Democracy in Indore” pamphlets across the Indore parliamentary constituency, which includes eight assembly segments, all won by the BJP in the 2023 assembly polls.
De facto nominee
After its official candidate withdrew his papers and the nomination of its substitute candidate rejected, the Congress decided to opt for NOTA as its de facto nominee