High court notice to BJP MP from Surat, unopposed election challenged

Mukesh Dalal BJP MP

Letter from BJP MP Mukesh Dalal, In the Lok Sabha elections 2024, BJP had won the Surat seat in Gujarat unopposed even before the election results. The victory of Surat Lok Sabha had made headlines across the country. Now Surat seat is once again in the headlines, because some voters of Surat Lok Sabha constituency have approached the High Court. The voters have challenged the decision to reject the nomination of the Congress candidate and raised questions on the victory of the BJP candidate. After this, the Gujarat High Court has sent a notice to BJP MP and winning candidate from Surat, Mukesh Dalal.

After the hearing in Gujarat High Court on July 25, summons have been issued to BJP MP Mukesh Dalal from Surat Lok Sabha seat on the petition challenging his unopposed victory. Justice JC Doshi of Gujarat High Court has fixed August 9 as the date for hearing on the case. Let us tell you, Mukesh Dalal had won unopposed from Surat when Congress candidate Nilesh Kumbhani’s nomination was rejected and later other candidates withdrew their nominations. Information about the hearing held on July 25 came to light today on Sunday.

Challenge to the decision to reject nomination

Some voters and Congress workers of Surat have filed a petition in the Gujarat High Court challenging the victory of Mukesh Dalal. The petition has challenged the decision of Surat Returning Officer to reject the nomination of Congress candidate Nilesh Kumbhani and has called the decision of Surat Collector illegal. Let us tell you, two separate petitions have been filed, in which one petition is by two Congress workers and the other petition is by a voter of Surat. The petition has challenged the decision to reject Kumbhani’s nomination form citing the provisions of Section 36 of the Representation of the People Act related to the scrutiny of nomination forms.

This argument was given in the High Court

Petitioner’s lawyer PS Champaneri argued during the hearing on July 25 that it is not the collector’s job to verify the signatures. He also stressed in the court that Congress is a national party and hence it does not have any shortage of proposers for its candidates in any constituency. Congress candidate Nilesh Kumbhani’s nomination was rejected on the basis of discrepancies in the signatures of his proposers, in which he had filed an affidavit claiming that he had not signed the paper. Let us tell you that the nomination of Nilesh Kumbhani’s dummy candidate Suresh Padsala was also declared invalid for the same reason, after this high voltage drama, Surat Collector Saurabh Parghi, who was the election officer, handed over the certificate of unopposed victory to BJP’s Mukesh Dalal.