After the nomination papers of Nilesh Kumbhani, the Congress candidate for Surat were rejected due to discrepancies, reports indicate that he had gone missing from his residence in Surat and his phone was unreachable. The development has led to a political upheaval in the city as Congress party workers held a protest against Kumbhani outside his house.
Angry at the recent developments, they held placards and called Kumbhani a ‘people’s traitor’ and ‘murderer of democracy’.
According to reports, Kumbhani has been out of touch since early morning. His house in the Sarthana area was also found locked from outside and he could not be contacted. As the ruckus outside his house escalated, the police were forced to take control of the situation. Meanwhile, a scuffle broke out between the Congress workers and the police. Later, Police detained some of the Congress workers.
Staging a protest the Congress workers alleged that Kumbhani will join the Bharatiya Janata Party as early as this week. They also alleged that he was already working for the BJP while he was in the grand old party which resulted in the rejection of his nomination papers.
Kumbhani’s nomination form was rejected as he failed to produce any of his three proposers before the Returning Officer, Sourabh Pardhi. The BJP raised concerns about discrepancies in the signatures of the three proposers on his form.
Further, Suresh Padsala, the Congress’ replacement candidate from Surat, also had his nomination invalidated which resulted in the Congress party’s exit from the electoral fray on this seat which has been a traditional BJP stronghold. Pardhi stated in his decision that the four nomination forms submitted by Kumbhani and Padsala were dismissed due to apparent discrepancies in the signatures of the backers on the nomination forms submitted by Kumbhani and Padsala, casting doubt on their authenticity.
Nonetheless, after their nomination papers were rejected, all the other eight Independent candidates in the fray withdrew their papers. Consequently, on Monday (22nd April), BJP candidate Mukesh Dalal was elected unopposed from this Lok Sabha constituency.
With this, he became the first BJP candidate to get elected unopposed in the history of Independent India. Pertinent to note that at least 35 politicians have been elected unopposed from their respective Lok Sabha constituencies since 1951.
