Congress Supports NOTA to Teach BJP a Lesson after Being Betrayed by Indore Pick

Indore, the largest constituency in terms of voters in Madhya Pradesh, is set to vote in the fourth phase of the Lok Sabha elections on Monday. The Congress party has not secured a victory in this constituency for the past 35 years, and for the first time, it has failed to field a candidate. The BJP’s nominee, sitting MP Shankar Lalwani, will be contesting, while the Congress had initially given a ticket to Akshay Kanti Bam, who later withdrew from the race and switched to a rival party. The state Congress chief, Jitu Patwari, announced that the party would not back any remaining candidates and encouraged people to use the NOTA (None of the Above) option to register their discontent with the BJP.

Senior Congress leader Sajjan Verma also urged the voters to choose NOTA to teach the BJP a lesson for their actions. Meanwhile, senior Congress leader Shobha Ojha called out the BJP for undermining democracy by luring Mr. Bam and encouraged voters to respond by choosing the NOTA option. NOTA was introduced in 2013 to allow voters to express dissatisfaction with the contesting candidates, and although these votes do not directly impact the election results, there has been a petition to the Supreme Court seeking to declare an election void if the majority of voters choose NOTA. Recent incidents have added to the controversy, with a BJP councillor caught removing posters promoting the NOTA option, prompting a complaint from the Congress to the Election Commission.

The BJP chief of Madhya Pradesh, VD Sharma, condemned instigating people to choose NOTA as a crime in democracy, expressing surprise at the withdrawal of the main opposition party’s candidate in Indore. Amidst the growing debate, the former Lok Sabha speaker, Sumitra Mahajan, emphasized the strength of the BJP in Indore and encouraged voters to support the party’s candidate rather than opting for NOTA, emphasizing its adherence to core ideology and leadership under Prime Minister Narendra Modi.