Indore: Stung by the last-minute withdrawal of Akshay Kanti Bam from Indore Lok Sabha constituency, Madhya Pradesh Congress president Jitu Patwari on Tuesday alleged "political mafia" in the city, akin to the Dawood Ibrahim gang of Mumbai, has committed "sin" by kidnapping the party candidate.
Bam's withdrawal of nomination on April 29 meant the Congress is not in the poll race from Indore parliamentary seat, which it has been trying to wrest from the BJP over the last 35 years.
After Bam opted out of the poll race and joined the BJP, the Congress appealed to voters to select the NOTA option while voting on May 13. BJP's sitting MP Shankar Lalwani is in the fray from Indore.
Patwari said the party workers should consider NOTA (None of The Above) as its candidate.
"We had read and heard about land mafia, liquor mafia, education mafia operating in Indore so far. Now, the political mafia has flourished in the city, just as Dawood Ibrahim's gang used to operate in Mumbai and this gang was involved in criminal incidents like gang war," Patwari told Congress workers.
He alleged the BJP, which claims to be the party with a difference, has committed a very 'disgusting crime' against voters of Indore by forcing the defection of the Congress candidate at the last minute.
"Every person in Indore has realised that the Congress candidate has been kidnapped by the political mafia. 90 per cent of the people of Indore has not liked this sin,'' the Congress leader alleged.
Patwari said people should choose the NOTA (None of the Above) option to teach the BJP a lesson.
He asked Congress workers to reach out to people at various events, meetings and through social media and appeal to them to use NOTA.
"Even though our candidate is not in the electoral field in Indore this time, Congress workers should sit on tables and chairs near every booth on the day of polling and work and consider NOTA as our candidate," Patwari said.
The state Congress chief claimed the decline in voting percentage in the Lok Sabha elections indicated the exit of the Narendra Modi government.
"Earlier, the BJP used to talk about winning all the 29 Lok Sabha seats in Madhya Pradesh, but now no words are coming out from them (over poll victory)," he said, adding that Congress will bag at least 10 to 12 seats in Madhya Pradesh.
He alleged the Indore Municipal Corporation paid Rs 150 crore to contractors in the name of laying drainage lines in the city but the work was not done on the ground.