Surat, Gujarat: BJP Candidate Wins Unopposed After Congress Candidate Is Rejected and Others Withdraw Nomination

Mukesh Dalal, the BJP’s nominee from Surat, Gujarat, won the Lok Sabha elections without facing any opposition after the Congress candidate’s nomination paper was rejected and many other contenders withdrew from the contest.

“Hearty congratulations and best wishes to Surat Lok Sabha seat candidate Shri Mukeshbhai Dalal for being elected unopposed,” said Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel in a message to Dalal.

According to Chief Minister Patel, this marks the start of the BJP’s “historic victory” in the country’s general elections.

With the BJP winning handily in all 26 Gujarati seats and the achievement of #AbKiBaar400Paar under the leadership of Hon’ble Modiji, this is a blatant sign of the lotus flowering. #PhirEkBaarModiSarkar,” the chief minister of Gujarat wrote on X.

“Surat has presented the first Lotus to Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” said BJP Gujarat unit chairman CR Paatil on X on Monday. I congratulate Mukesh Dalal, our candidate for the Surat Lok Sabha constituency, for winning the election without facing any opposition.

Nilesh Kumbhani, the grand old party’s candidate from Surat, had his nomination denied because the district returning officer had first discovered differences in the proposers’ signatures.

Then, Suresh Padsala, the Congress alternative candidate, had his nomination form ruled void as well.

Notably, eight candidates—mostly Independents and Pyarelal Bharti of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP)—withdrew their papers on Monday, the final day for nomination form withdrawals.

The last time a general election resulted in an unopposed winner was in 1989, when Jammu and Kashmir’s Srinagar Lok Sabha seat went to National Conference candidate Muhammad Shafi Bhat.

As for the highly sensitive state, where all 26 Lok Sabha seats are up for election on May 7 in the third round of the seven-phase general election, the move sparked uproar there.

Congressman Jairam Ramesh reacted angrily to his party’s nominees being rejected, claiming that “they were left without a candidate.” About two weeks before the election, he questioned the decision to declare Mukesh Dalal “unopposed.”

Everything is seriously jeopardized, including Babasaheb Ambedkar’s Constitution, our democracy, and our elections. This is the most significant election of our lives, I reiterate! As stated by Ramesh in his X post,.

“Those urban naxals who are outraging over BJP’s Surat Candidate Mukesh Dalal winning Loksabha elections unopposed, do they know that there were 10 unopposed winners in the first Lok Sabha in 1951 and 11 in the second Lok Sabha in 1957?” BJP leader Zubin Ashara retaliated against the opposition for criticizing the unopposed win. when Pandit Nehru had the prime ministership.

Ashara said in his article on X, “And it didn’t stop there, many other leaders of the “INDI” alliance have won unopposed after that time period as well.”

The earlier unchallenged victories from other parties were mentioned by Ashara and were Dimple Yadav of the SP (2012), Dil Kumari of the Sikkim Sangram Parishad 1985, Farooq Abdullah of the NC 1980, Premalabai of the Congress in 1973, P M Sayeed of the Congress in 1971, and Yashwantrao Chavan of the Congress in 1963.

“Mukesh Dalal ji is the first BJP member to win unopposed,” he said.