MP polls: Vijaywargiya's son-in-law withdraws from fray

BJP leader Kailash Vijaywargiya was Wednesday saved from embarrassment in run-up to November 28 assembly polls when his son-in-law Lalit Porwal withdrew his candidature from Indore 3 assembly seat against the party general secretary's son Akash on the last day.

Akash Vijaywargiya (34) is contesting his maiden elections from the seat, which was won by BJP's Usha Thakur in 2013.

Porwal's wife Sapna is the niece of Kailash Vijaywargiya, the BJP national general secretary, according to the family sources of Porwal.

Vijaywargiya had performed "Kanya daan" of Sapna during her marriage, they said.

When asked why he withdrew his nomination papers as an Independent nominee, Porwal (59) said he was under pressure to do so from senior leaders of the BJP as well as his relatives.

"Moreover, I did not want that the Congress benefit from a contest between myself and Akash," Porwal told reporters.

With Porwal's withdrawal, ten candidates including Akash now remained in the fray from the Indore 3 segment.

However, the main contest is expected between the Vijaywargiya junior and Congress' Ashwin Joshi (58), a former MLA.

In a separate development, two Congress rebels namely Preeti Agnihotri and Kamlesh Khandelwal--who had filed their nomination papers as independent candidates--withdrew their candidature on Wednesday from Indore 1 seat.

The main contest here is now confined between sitting BJP MLA Sudershan Gupta and Congress candidate Sanjay Shukla.