Mukesh Dalal won uncontested following the rejection of the nomination of Congress candidate Nilesh Kumbhani.The BJP has clinched its first victory in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections as its Surat candidate Mukesh Dalal won uncontested following the rejection of the nomination of Congress candidate Nilesh Kumbhani. All other candidates withdrew their nomination papers. Kumbhani’s disqualification followed a disclosure by his three proposers, who in an affidavit to the district election officer claimed that they had not signed his nomination form. The nomination form of Suresh Padsala, the Congress’s substitute candidate from Surat, was also found invalid.
BJP leaders were quick to take to social media to congratulate Dalal as State BJP president CR Paatil wrote on X (formerly Twitter), “Surat [has] offered first lotus to Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendrabhai Modi.” He added, “Congratulations and best wishes to Mr. Mukeshbhai Dalal, candidate for Surat Lok Sabha seat, for being elected unopposed!!”
Ankit Jain, BJP Delhi’s social media head, also said in a post on X, “BJP wins first Loksabha seat from Surat, Congress candidate Nilesh Kumbhani’s nomination rejected because his Proposers backed out. All 8 independents against BJP candidate Mukesh Dalal take back their nominations. No voting to take place in surat.”
Pyarelal Bharti of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and seven Independents withdrew from the elections before polling. The Election Commission of India, in its handbook for returning officers, has important details about “unopposed returns”. It says: “If in any constituency there is only one contesting candidate, declare that candidate to have been duly elected immediately after the last hour for withdrawal of candidature. In that event, a poll is not necessary.”
Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said that “democracy is under threat”. He began his X post with “aap chronology samajhiye”. “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’ from Surat Lok Sabha seat on April 22nd, 2024, nearly two weeks before polling on May 7th 2024,” he wrote.
Ramesh claimed that “the distress and anger faced by MSME owners and businesspeople in Modi’s Anyay Kaal has spooked the BJP so badly that they are attempting to match-fix Surat Lok Sabha, which they have won consistently since 1984 Lok Sabha elections!”
He warned. “Our elections, our democracy, Babasaheb Ambedkar’s Constitution – all are under a generational threat. This is the most important election of our lifetime!”
In Gujarat, the Congress and AAP are fight the elections as part of the opposition INDIA bloc. While Congress is fielding candidates on 24 of the 26 seats, AAP is contesting in Bhavnagar and Bharuch. According to the Election Commission of India’s website, aside from Congress and BJP, the Bahujan Samaj Party was the only other national party to field a candidate for the Surat seat.
Mukesh Dalal, the Surat City BJP general secretary and SDCA committee member, has been with the BJP since 1981. Hailing from the Modh Vanik community, Dalal has chaired The Surat Peoples Cooperative Bank Ltd. and is recognized for his close ties to Gujarat BJP chief and Navsari MP CR Patil. He has a degree in Commerce and LLB, as well as an MBA in Finance. He served as a councilllor in SMC for three terms, representing the Adajan-Pal-Palanpor area from 2005 to 2020.
Formerly serving as the Standing Committee Chairman of Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC), Dalal also held positions at the state level in Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha and has been a city executive member, a three-term councilor in SMC, and a five-term standing committee chairman. He was the general secretary of the city BJP for over three years.
In a democracy as complex as India, it’s rare for a candidate to win unopposed in parliamentary or assembly elections. But there have been a few cases of candidates being elected unopposed since the first general election in 1951.
One of the more high-profile uncontested wins across Lok Sabha elections came in 1980, when former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah won his seat in Srinagar uncontested. The next uncontested win came eight years later in 1989, when the National Conference’s Mohammad Shafi Bhat repeated Abdullah’s feat and won the same seat, in the same manner. Since then, no MP has been declared elected “uncontested”.