Congress's Appeal For NOTA Vote Amid Indore Candidate's Withdrawal Sparks Row

The Congress' appeal came against the backdrop of the last-minute withdrawal of nomination by the party candidate Akshay Kanti Bam on April 29, who joined the BJP.

Seeking to blunt the Congress' campaign, the BJP has asked voters to shun the None of The Above (NOTA) option and re-elect party MP Shankar Lalwani by a huge margin.

While Congress is targeting the BJP with the slogan "Note ka Jawab Nota", the saffron party has retorted saying, "Your coin is counterfeit".

Madhya Pradesh Minister Tulsi Silawat has uploaded RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat's speech purportedly discouraging NOTA on his X (formerly Twitter) handle.

State Congress president Jitu Patwari had said even though the party candidate is not in the fray, Congress workers should consider NOTA as their nominee.

"Your candidate voluntarily withdrew his nomination papers at the last moment. People are not stupid. Your coin is counterfeit and you are asking the public to vote for NOTA. This won't prevail," MP BJP chief VD Sharma said.

The BJP has been winning the Indore parliamentary constituency for the last 35 years. The party is eyeing a victory margin of at least 8 lakh votes this time.

Notably, Lalwani had defeated his nearest Congress rival by 5.47 votes in 2019 elections.

A total of 14 candidates are in the fray from Indore, which has 25.13 lakh eligible voters.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Indore recorded a 69 per cent polling when 5,045 voters had opted for NOTA.