Four independents and three nominees from smaller parties also withdrew their nomination papers on the last day of the election campaigning for the ongoing polls.
The Bharatiya Janta Party on Monday won its first seat in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections unopposed as Congress Surat candidate Nilesh Kumbhani was disqualified owing to alleged discrepancies in his nomination papers, while eight other nominees withdrew from the fray. It is rare for a Lok Sabha seat to be won unopposed, and the first such win for the BJP.
To subscribe please click tau.id/2iy6f and access our live channel.
Congratulating Dalal, Gujarat BJP chief CR Paatil said, “Congratulations and best wishes to Mukesh Dalal, candidate for Surat Lok Sabha seat, for being elected unopposed.”
ALSO CHECK: VVPAT Machines and Its Benefits
Nilesh Kumbhani, the Congress candidate from Surat Lok Sabha seat, was unable to present even one of his three proposers before the election officer, after which his nomination form was cancelled.
The Congress has cried foul over the rejection of the nomination papers of both Kumbhani and its substitute candidate, Suresh Padsala, on the ground of “discrepancies in the verification of signatures of their proposers”.
Who is a proposer?
According to EC rules, a proposer must be a registered elector of the Assembly or parliamentary constituency for which he or she endorses a candidate’s nomination. The nomination papers of the candidate must be signed by the proposer as well as the candidate for them to be deemed valid.
As per the Representation of the People Act, 1951, a candidate of a recognised state or national party needs one proposer, while an Independent or the candidate of an unrecognised party needs 10. The EC allows a candidate to file up to four nominations for the same constituency, to be safe in case errors are spotted in any.
What is the role of the proposer?
A proposer is mandated to sign at the designated part in a nomination paper. He or she can sign more than one nomination form for the same candidate as well as for different candidates. The candidate and the proposer are mandated to be physically present while nomination papers are submitted to the Returning Officer (RO).
The RO has to be satisfied that the name and electoral roll number of the candidate as well as the proposer match with EC records. The RO can reject a nomination form if the papers are not submitted on time or are submitted by anyone other than the candidate or the proposer.
The Aftermath
In his order, Returning Officer Sourabh Pardhi said the four nomination forms submitted by Kumbhani and Padsala were rejected because at first sight, discrepancies were found in the signatures of the proposers, and they did not appear genuine.
Also, the proposers stated in their affidavits that they did not sign the forms themselves, Pardhi’s order stated. Incidentally, Kumbhani’s three proposers were his relatives. The Congress candidate came to the election officer with his advocate, but none of his three proposers turned up.
Congress leader and advocate Babu Mangukiya said that Kumbhani’s three proposers were kidnapped, adding that the Returning Officer should investigate it and not whether the form has been signed or not. Mangukiya said that it was wrong to cancel the form without tele-checking the signatures and without checking whether the proposers’ signatures are correct or wrong.
Conclusion
Voting for all 26 Gujarat constituencies was schedule for May 7, but with the result of Surat seat already out, polling will now be held on 25 seats. The filing of nominations for the third-phase elections started on April 15 and continued till April 19.
On Monday, which was the last date for withdrawal of nominations, a total of eight candidates withdrew from the poll fray, with Bahujan Samaj Party’s Pyarelal Bharti being the last one to do so around 2 pm, the poll officer said.
Besides Bharti, four independents and three nominees from smaller parties also withdrew their nomination papers on the last day.
