2024 Lok Sabha Elections: BJP Expected to Win Surat After Congress Candidate Disqualified, Independents Withdraw

Today was the deadline for withdrawing nominations. The nominations of the Congress party’s Surat candidate and his substitute were rejected by the returning officer over alleged discrepancies in paperwork, a development that the Congress called an attempt at “match-fixing”. “Surat has presented the first lotus to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

I congratulate our candidate for Surat Lok Sabha seat Mukesh Dalal for getting elected unopposed,” Mr Paatil posted on the microblogging website X, referring to the BJP’s election symbol. Eight candidates – seven of them independents – and Pyarelal Bharti of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) withdrew their papers. The nomination form of Suresh Padsala, the Congress’s substitute candidate from Surat, was also found invalid.

The returning officer had said the four nomination forms submitted by the two Congress candidates did not appear genuine. Congress lawyer Babu Mangukiya said the party will approach the high court and the Supreme Court for relief. Congress leader Jairam Ramesh in a post on X said the Surat developments indicate “democracy is under threat”.

“Our elections, our democracy, Babasaheb Ambedkar’s Constitution – all are under a generational threat. This is the most important election of our lifetime,” Mr Ramesh said. Mr Ramesh alleged the “distress” of micro, small and medium enterprise (MSME) owners and the business community in PM Modi’s “Anyay Kaal” and their anger have “spooked the BJP so badly that they are attempting to match-fix the Surat Lok Sabha polls, which they have won consistently since the 1984 Lok Sabha elections.”