A candidate and his substitute’s nominations were canceled over discrepancies in the signatures of their proposers, eight other candidates including one from Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) withdrew their nominations, paving the way for the BJP candidate to be elected unopposed.
Since Monday morning, seven candidates including Soheil Shekh from Log Party, Jayesh Mevada, Global Republican Party, Abdul Hamid Khan from Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Party, and independent candidates Bharat Prajapati, Ajitsinh Umat, Kishor Dayani and Ramesh P Baraiya withdrew their nominations The last candidate to pull out of the contest was Pyarelal Bharati from BSP, leaving BJP candidate Mukesh Dalal, the lone candidate.
A total of 24 candidates had filed nominations out of which four had been accepted, 12 were rejected and eight were withdrawn, the Election Commission’s website said.
Surat, with over 17.67 lakh voters, has been a BJP bastion. The last time the Congress had won the seat was in 1984.
Surat Collector and Returning Officer (RO) Sourabh Pardhi issued the “certificate of election” to Dalal, which read, “…to have duly elected by the said constituency in the General Election to be a member of the House of People and that in token thereof I have granted to him this certificate of election BJP’s Gujarat President C R Paatil posted on X, “Surat offered first lotus to Prime Minister Narendrabhai Modi!! Congratulations and best wishes to Mukeshbhai Dalal, Surat Lok Sabha candidate for being elected unopposed.”
Responding to Congress’ claim that the whole episode was a “murder of democracy”, Paatil said in a media briefing, “They have been murdering democracy till now…they can’t contest a fair election. Congress is alleging pressure on administration and that BJP was involved in kidnapping (of proposers) but they have filed affidavit saying they didn’t sign the nomination papers.”