Surat walkover: Congress says candidate may have 'connived' with BJP, suspends him

Congress's Surat candidate Nilesh Kumbhani, whose nomination form was rejected due to alleged discrepancies, has been suspended from the party for six years. The BJP's candidate for the Lok Sabha seat, Mukesh Dalal, had won the polls unopposed after all his opponents were out of the fray.

A report by PTI news agency quoting Congress said the party's disciplinary committee decided to suspend Nilesh Kumbhani after coming to the conclusion that his 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 After your form was rejected by the authorities, BJP went ahead and got the forms of eight other candidates withdrawn. This has deprived the people of Surat their voting rights," said the Congress disciplinary committee headed by Balu Patel.

Nilesh Kumbhani's nomination was cancelled after he failed to produce even one of his three proposers before the election officer after discrepancies were found in their signatures.

The BJP had raised questions about the discrepancies in the signatures of three proposers in Kumbhani's nomination form.

The nomination form of Suresh Padsala, the Congress' substitute candidate from Surat, was also invalidated. The other eight candidates for the seat also withdrew their nominations, leading to Mukesh Dalal winning the seat.

A day after Mukesh Dalal was announced the winner of the Surat seat, Congress workers protested outside Nilesh Kumbhani's house as he was likely to join the BJP, as per sources.

The Lok Sabha elections in the Surat seat was supposed to take place on May 7 but Mukesh Dalal was declared the victor on April 22.