1 week ago
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The Gujarat Congress on Friday suspended its Surat Lok Sabha candidate Nilesh Kumbhani, whose nomination form was rejected over discrepancies regarding signatures of the proposers leading to the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Mukesh Dalal getting elected unopposed, from the party for six years.
After his paper was rejected by the District collector and returning officer on April 21, Mr. Kumbhani had “disappeared” prompting the local party workers to hold protests outside his locked house in the city.
The local cadres of the party even called him a “traitor” while protesting outside his house.
However, as soon as the news of his suspension b came public, Mr. Kumbhani appeared before local channels and blamed the local party leaders of the party for the fiasco in which his paper was rejected and the ruling BJP managed to win the seat without a contest.
“I will not speak against the Congress but I will say that the local leaders in the city were not cooperative,” he said, adding “he had apprised the State leadership about the BJP’s efforts to manage his proposers who had endorsed his candidature.”
He also contended that even he was offered by the BJP to withdraw from the race but when he refused, the BJP used other tactics to get him out from the contest.
Meanwhile, in a statement, the State Congress said the party’s disciplinary committee decided to suspend Mr. Kumbhani after thorough discussion, adding that it had come to the conclusion that the nomination form was rejected due to gross negligence on his part or “in connivance with the BJP”.
“To be fair to you, we have given time to you to explain your case but instead of coming before the party disciplinary committee, you have gone incommunicado. After your form was rejected by the authorities, the BJP went ahead and got form of other eight candidates withdrawn. This has deprived people of Surat their voting rights,” the Congress disciplinary committee headed by Balu Patel said.
“People of Surat and party workers have become very angry due to your action and are expressing their anger in different ways. The Congress party has decided to suspend you for six years from the party,” the press note said.
Mr. Kumbhani’s nomination form was rejected on April 21 after his three proposers submitted affidavits to the district returning officer, claiming the signatures on the document were not theirs.
The nomination form of Suresh Padsala, the Congress’ substitute candidate from Surat, was also invalidated on the same grounds.
In his order, Returning Officer Sourabh Pardhi said the three nomination forms submitted by Mr. Kumbhani and Mr. Padsala were rejected after a prima facie discrepancy was found in the signatures of the proposers and they did not appear to be genuine.
Mr. Kumbhani, a former corporator from Surat, had unsuccessfully fought the 2022 Assembly polls from Kamrej Assembly seat in Surat.
The BJP’s Mukesh Dalal was elected unopposed from Surat Lok Sabha constituency on April 22 after all other nominees, including one from the Bahujan Samaja Party, withdrew from the fray one by one on the last day of withdrawing papers.
