File image of Congress Surat candidate Nilesh Kumbhani
| Photo Credit: Facebook/nileshcongress
The Gujarat Congress on Friday suspended its Surat Lok Sabha candidate Nilesh Kumbhani, whose nomination kind was rejected over discrepancies concerning signatures of the proposers resulting in the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Mukesh Dalal getting elected unopposed, from the occasion for six years.
After his paper was rejected by the District collector and returning officer on April 21, Mr. Kumbhani had “disappeared” prompting the native occasion employees to carry protests exterior his locked home within the metropolis.
The native cadres of the occasion even known as him a “traitor” whereas protesting exterior his home.
However, as quickly because the news of his suspension b got here public, Mr. Kumbhani appeared earlier than native channels and blamed the native occasion leaders of the occasion for the fiasco during which his paper was rejected and the ruling BJP managed to win the seat and not using a contest.
“I will not speak against the Congress but I will say that the local leaders in the city were not cooperative,” he stated, including “he had apprised the State leadership about the BJP’s efforts to manage his proposers who had endorsed his candidature.”
He additionally contended that even he was supplied by the BJP to withdraw from the race however when he refused, the BJP used different techniques to get him out from the competition.
Meanwhile, in a press release, the State Congress stated the occasion’s disciplinary committee determined to droop Mr. Kumbhani after thorough dialogue, including that it had come to the conclusion that the nomination kind was rejected because of gross negligence on his half 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 After your form was rejected by the authorities, the BJP went ahead and got form of other eight candidates withdrawn.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 stated.
“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 word stated.
Mr. Kumbhani’s nomination kind was rejected on April 21 after his three proposers submitted affidavits to the district returning officer, claiming the signatures on the doc weren’t theirs.
The nomination type of Suresh Padsala, the Congress’ substitute candidate from Surat, was additionally invalidated on the identical grounds.
In his order, Returning Officer Sourabh Pardhi stated the three nomination types submitted by Mr. Kumbhani and Mr. Padsala had been rejected after a prima facie discrepancy was discovered within the signatures of the proposers and they didn’t seem like real.
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 in spite of everything different nominees, together with one from the Bahujan Samaja Party, withdrew from the fray one after the other on the final day of withdrawing papers.
Source: www.thehindu.com
