BJP's Mukesh Dalal wins Surat Lok Sabha seat unopposed after Congress candidate disqualified

The Bharatiya Janata Party registered its first win in the Lok Sabha election after it won the Surat seat without any contest. Mukesh Dalal won unopposed after the nomination of the Congress candidate was rejected and all other candidates also withdrew from the elections.

"Surat has presented the first lotus to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. I congratulate our candidate for Surat Lok Sabha seat Mukesh Dalal for getting elected unopposed," Paatil posted on the microblogging website X, referring to the BJP's election symbol.

While the Congress candidate's form was rejected by the Returning Officer, the other eight candidates for the seat withdrew their nominations. The nomination form of Nilesh Kumbhani, the Congress candidate for the Surat Lok Sabha constituency, was canceled since he was unable to produce even one of his three proposers before the election commissioner.

The BJP had raised questions about the discrepancies in the signatures of three proposers in Kumbhani's nomination form. The Congress's replacement candidate from Surat, Suresh Padsala, had his nomination form nullified as well, which eliminated the party from the race in the city.

Returning Officer Sourabh Pardhi issued an order stating that the four nomination forms that Kumbhani and Padsala had presented were refused because at first sight, discrepancies were found in the signatures of the proposers, and they did not appear genuine.

The proposers, in their affidavits, had said they had not signed the forms themselves, the returning officer said in the order.

• BJP
• Congress
• Lok Sabha elections 2024
• Mukesh Dalal
• Nilesh Kumbhani
• Surat Lok Sabha
• CR Paatil
• PM Modi