Congress suspends Surat LS candidate Nilesh Kumbhani

The Gujarat Congress has suspended its Surat Lok Sabha candidate Nilesh Kumbhani from the party for six years. His nomination form was rejected earlier this month over discrepancies, leading to the BJP’s Mukesh Dalal getting elected unopposed. The party in a statement said, the decision was taken following the gross negligence shown by the candidate in filing his nomination form. It said, this has also deprived the people of Surat of their voting rights.The BJP candidate from the Surat seat was elected unopposed after all the other candidates in the fray withdrew their nominations.Following which the rest of the eight candidates, including one from Bahujan Samaj Party, withdrew their nomination forms on the last day and the DEO declared the BJP candidate Mukesh Dalal as the uncontested winner.The nomination form of Suresh Padsala, the Congress' substitute candidate from Surat, was also invalidated on the same grounds.
The suspension notice to Kumbhani, further said, “Your form being rejected is very unfortunate. After that the BJP used its entire machinery and got other candidates to withdraw their forms using allurements, fear and harassment thus murdering democracy. The notice also said that the Congress party had given him the ticket assuming he “would raise the voice as a representative of the many Patidars from Saurashtra who are settled in Surat”.

(Ira Singh, Asstt Editor, Gandhinagar)