In ‘no-contest’ Indore, as Congress props up NOTA, 13 others carry on

The fact that Indore has been reduced to a “no-contest” may strike a chord given that it is Madhya Pradesh’s biggest Lok Sabha constituency, with 25.13 lakh voters.

Plus, it has always been an easy seat for the BJP, with the party having won it since 1989, and in 2019 by 65.59% votes. The BJP has re-fielded its sitting MP Shankar Lalwani. The Congress got 31% of the votes in 2019, and NOTA 0.31%.

But, as long as there are still candidates in the race – and there are 13 as of now – meaning Indore won’t be another Surat (which the BJP won uncontested), the Congress is going with NOTA as its best bet.

The BJP, incidentally, has not scheduled meetings of any of its stalwarts in the seat. Party spokesperson Alok Dubey said that, nevertheless, they are looking at “victory with an overwhelming
majority”.

The BJP has also attacked the Congress’s support for NOTA as “negative politics” and “an attack on democracy”.

Apart from Lalwani, and now NOTA, the 13 in the contest include a former RSS worker whose agenda is “to reform politics”, a young socialist leader, businessmen, property dealers, and employees of
private firms. Nine of them are contesting as Independents.

Several claim to have been approached by the BJP to “withdraw”. Indore BJP spokesperson Deepak Jain denied that the party was in contact with any of the rival candidates.

Among those in the race is Abhay Jain, who belongs to Janhit Party,floated by former RSS workers ahead of last year’s Assembly elections, with the aim of introducing “clean politics” and breaking the state’s dual-party system of the BJP and Congress.

Jain told The Indian Express: “I am contesting as an Independent as my party is not yet registered. The BJP approached me to withdraw. They told me I was with the Sangh once and should not contest against the BJP. But I refused.”

Deepak Jain said his remarks were “fictional and publicity driven”. The other Independent contestants include Pankaj Gupta, a lawyer who practises in Indore’s local courts; Ayaz Ali, a local contractor with links in the construction business; local businessmen Ankit Gupta and
Mudit Chaurasiya; Arjun Parihar, an engineer; Parmanand Tolani, a property dealer; and private sector employees Lavish Dalip Khandelwal and Ravi Sirwaiya.

Pankaj Gupta said this was his sixth election, after contesting polls for the Assembly and for Mayor and Councillor, without ever winning. He told The Indian Express, “I was asked to withdraw from the contest by the BJP and offered the post of a government lawyer. (But) I want to do public service.”

Ali said he had previously tried fighting an Assembly election, and added that he was under no pressure to withdraw.

The candidates of other parties in the fray include Sanjay Solanki, a businessman contesting on the BSP ticket; Basant Gehlot, a local reporter, contesting on the ticket of ‘Jan Sangh Party’; Ajeet Singh, a social worker and nominee of the Socialist Unity Centre of India (Communist); and Pawan Kumar, a private sector employee who has been fielded by the ‘Akhilesh Bhartiya Parivar Party’.

Kumar said his party came up two years ago, in the aftermath of the Covid crisis, as a means to get the government to waive off loans of the working and middle class. “The BJP tried to get me to quit,” he claimed.

Asked whether he had faced any such pressure, Gehlot said: “Nobody dared approach me to withdraw.”

Among those to have expressed some concern over how the Indore contest has panned out is former Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan, who won the Indore seat for the BJP eight times in a row between 1989 and 2014.

She told the media recently that she had been receiving calls from prominent people in Indore who said they were mulling NOTA after Bam’s shock withdrawal. She called the withdrawal by Bam “unfair” and said: “I was surprised… This should not have happened. There was no need for this as the writing on the wall was that nobody can defeat the BJP in Indore.”

Asked about Mahajan’s remarks, BJP spokesperson Deepak Jain said: “Her statements have been taken out of context by the Congress.”

Madhya Pradesh BJP chief V D Sharma equated the Congress’s appeal for NOTA to “a crime”. “The Congress leadership wants to weaken democracy.”

He told The Indian Express: “Your (the Congress) candidate voluntarily withdraws his nomination at the last moment… You are on the wrong side, and you are asking the public to vote for NOTA!”

Madhya Pradesh Congress president Jitu Patwari said this was a fair response by the party to “the political crime of kidnapping of the Indore candidate”. “There could be many reasons why the Congress candidate left… I don’t want to talk about them. But, this act of the BJP, despite receiving huge response from the people, is a challenge to the voters. Electors of Indore should vote for NOTA to teach the BJP a lesson,” Patwari told The Indian Express.

He added: “If the people don’t oppose this political crime, politicians of Indore will no longer fear the public.”

Meanwhile, Bam’s own fate remains uncertain. While his expected admission into the BJP hasn’t yet happened, on Friday, a Sessions Court in Indore issued an arrest warrant against him and his father in an attempt to murder case.

Public prosecutor Abhijit Singh Rathore told The Indian Express that their lawyer moved an application seeking exemption from personal appearance, and that the application claimed that while Bam was out of town for “essential work”, his father had been advised rest because of poor health.

“But the court ordered the police to arrest them and present them before the court by July 8,” Rathore said.

The attempt to murder charges, incidentally, had been added to an17-year-old case against Bam and his father just days before hen withdrew his nomination.

Though Bam did not appear before the court, he was seen on Friday attending events for Parashuram Jayanti with minister Kailash Vijayvargiya in Indore. The celebration coincided with the birthday of Vijayvargiya, whose writ runs supreme in the Indore BJP.

Asked if and when Bam would be inducted into the BJP, party chief Sharma told The Indian Express: “We have purifiers and X-ray machines installed here. Nothing to worry about.”