BJP’s Mukesh Dalal Wins Surat Lok Sabha Seat Uncontested Amid Controversy
A day after the Congress candidate from Surat was rejected, the BJP’s Mukesh Dalal was declared elected uncontested from the Lok Sabha seat, after the eight remaining nominees withdrew one by one.
While four of them were Independents, three belonged to little-known parties and one was a candidate of the BSP. Surat City BSP president Satish Sonavne alleged the hand of the BJP in the withdrawal of its nominee, Pyarelal Bharti.
It is rare for candidates to win uncontested in Lok Sabha elections, with only 23 such known instances before this since Independence (not counting bypolls) as per the Election Commission website. Of these, 10 won in the first two elections, 1951-1952 and 1957, when the pool of candidates was small. Dalal is the first ever BJP leader to win uncontested.
Before Dalal was declared the winner, the Congress moved the Election Commission, seeking that it postpone elections on the seat. It urged the EC to use powers under Article 324 “for setting aside the order passed by the Returning Officer cancelling Nilesh Kumbhani’s nomination, directing restoration of his candidature from the Surat Lok Sabha Constituency; or in the alternative, (accepting) nomination of the backup candidate for the INC, Suresh Padsala”.
Barring the BJP’s Dalal, eight candidates then gave in writing to the election officer that they did not want to contest. Surat District Election Officer (DEO) and District Collector Saurabh Parghi subsequently declared Dalal the winner.
The BSP’s Sonavne claimed the party came to know only after their candidate Bharti had submitted his withdrawal letter to the DEO. He told The Indian Express: “The BJP used all means to pressure candidates to withdraw their forms, and was successful.”
The BJP had picked Dalal, 62, as its Surat candidate in place of Darshana Jardosh, its three-time MP from the seat and Union Minister of State for Railways and Textiles. Dalal, who is from the OBC Modhvanik community, is the Surat city BJP general secretary and a chairman of the Surat Municipal Corporation Standing Committee.
Congress communications in-charge Jairam Ramesh posted on Twitter: “Aap chronology samajhiye: Surat District Election Officer rejects @INCIndia’s candidate for Surat Lok Sabha, Nilesh Kumbhani’s nomination for ‘discrepancies in verification of signatures of three proposers’. On similar grounds, officials reject the nomination of Suresh Padsala, the INC’s substitute candidate from Surat. Congress Party is left without a candidate. All other candidates withdraw their nomination except BJP’s candidate, Mukesh Dalal. BJP candidate declared ‘elected unopposed’… nearly two weeks before polling on May 7th, 2024.”
Senior Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who led a party delegation to meet the EC, told reporters: “In James Bond parlance, the first time is happenstance, the second time is coincidence and the third time is enemy action. In Surat, the Congress candidate who was nominated by four proposers… suddenly all four stand up and deny their signatures… all four together. This is no coincidence. The candidate is missing for many hours. By the time he surfaces, we find that every other candidate has withdrawn their candidature.”
