SURAT: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Mukesh Dalal was declared elected unopposed from Surat Lok Sabha constituency in Gujarat after all other contestants either withdrew their candidature or their nominations were rejected.
The development comes after nominations of two Congress candidates were cancelled and eight other candidates pulled out of the electoral race on Monday.
Gujarat, the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah, is all set to go to polls on May 7.
Gujarat BJP chief CR Paatil posted congratulatory messages for Dalal.
“Surat has offered the first lotus to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Congratulations to Surat Lok Sabha candidate Mukeshbhai Dalal for being elected unopposed,” Paatil said on X.
The final candidate to withdraw his candidature was Pyarelal Bharati from the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) around 2 pm on Monday.
The nomination filing for Gujarat was held from April 15 to April 19 with April 22 being the last date for withdrawing candidature.
The Opposition Congress party suffered a setback as its candidate Nilesh Kumbhani saw his nomination denied as the returning officer prima facie found discrepancies in the signature of the proposers. He was unable to present even one of his three proposers before the returning officer, after which his nomination was cancelled.
Suresh Padsala, the substitute candidate of the Congress, also had his nomination form invalidated on Sunday. It meant that the Congress was left without any contender in the Surat Parliamentary seat.
The returning officer decided to reject nomination forms after reviewing affidavits of the proposers and other evidence.
Meanwhile, the Congress has accused the ruling BJP of foul play, claiming that everyone was scared of the government’s threat.
Congress leader and advocate Babu Mangukiya alleged that Kumbhani’s three proposers were kidnapped, demanding that the returning officer should probe it and not whether the form has been signed or not.
Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said: “Seeing the problems and anger of MSME owners and businessmen during the injustice period of PM Modi, BJP is so scared that it is trying to ‘fix the match’ of Surat Lok Sabha. They have been winning this seat continuously since 1984 Lok Sabha elections.’’
“Our elections, our democracy, Babasahed Ambedkar’s Constitution — everything is in grave danger. I repeat - this is the most important election of our lifetime,’’ he added.
However, this is not the first time a Lok Sabha candidate has been elected even before polling took place. About three dozen MPs won their seats unopposed in Independent India’s seven decades of electoral history.
One of the recent examples is Dimple Yadav’s victory in Kannauj, Uttar Pradesh, where she won in the 2012 Lok Sabha by-election.
Political leaders who got walkovers in Parliamentary polls include former Deputy Prime Minister and Maharashtra Chief Minister Y B Chavan from Nasik seat, and former J&K Chief Minister and National Conference chief Farooq Abdullah from Srinagar. with agency inputs