Gujarat HC Summons Surat MP Over Unopposed Win Challenge

The Gujarat High Court on Sunday has summoned Mukesh Dalal, the Bharatiya Janata Party Member of Parliament (MP) from Surat, in response to two petitions contesting his uncontested victory.

Justice JC Doshi’s court issued the summons, requiring Dalal to respond by August 9, following a hearing on July 25, according to PS Champaneri, the petitioners’ lawyer.

Dalal was declared the winner on April 22, the final day for nomination withdrawal, after Congress candidate Nilesh Kumbhani’s nomination was rejected, and other candidates withdrew. The remaining 25 Lok Sabha seats in Gujarat were contested on May 7, during the third phase of the general elections. The BJP secured 25 seats across the state, with Congress winning one.

The petitioners have challenged the Surat collector and returning officer’s decision to reject Kumbhani’s nomination. The four voters from the Surat constituency, all Congress members, filed the petitions questioning the rejection under Section 36 of the Representation of the People Act, which deals with the scrutiny of nomination forms.

The petitioners argue that Kumbhani’s three proposers, who later denied signing his nomination papers, had declared in an application to the deputy collector that they would sign as proposers. They did this while applying for the certificate confirming their voter status in the same constituency, a requirement for proposers.

They further asserted that verifying signatures is not the collector’s responsibility, emphasizing that the Congress party, as a national entity, would not lack proposers for its candidates in any constituency.

Dalal’s victory marks the first uncontested win in a Lok Sabha election in the past 12 years. This was also the BJP’s first victory in the recent general elections, with results declared on June 4.

Previously on April 22, in the final hour of nomination withdrawal, District Collector and election officer Saurabh Pardhi issued Dalal his election certificate. Kumbhani’s nomination was rejected due to discrepancies in his proposers’ signatures, with the proposers filing affidavits denying their signatures. Similarly, his dummy candidate Suresh Padsala’s nomination was invalidated for the same reason.