Congress cries foul as party's Indore nominee Akshay Bam defects to BJP

As Congress on Monday suffered yet another embarrassment of its candidate, this time Akshay Kanti Bam of Indore Lok Sabha seat in Madhya Pradesh, withdrawing his nomination and joining BJP, the Opposition party claimed he was pressured to do so due to some pending cases and lamented that it was a case of "threat to democracy".

This is the second such case involving Congress candidates in this election as only last week the party candidate in Surat seat of Gujarat similarly defected to the BJP.

"The gentleman in question has multiple universities and colleges and he is also facing some cases. One of the charges against him is of murder. It is not natural, normal or ordinary that somebody just withdraws their candidature and joins the BJP," Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate said in response to media queries about the defection of the party candidate.


"When we say the democracy of India is under threat, this is the threat we speak about. The threat is to coax candidates, to put pressure on them to withdraw, to intimidate them, to intimidate their proposers and that is what is happening," she claimed.