Ahmedabad: After Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Mukesh Dalal was declared elected unopposed from Surat Lok Sabha seat in Gujarat on Monday, he has become the first candidate to make this record since the formation of the state 64 years ago. However, before the formation of Gujarat, a similar example was seen in the erstwhile Saurashtra province in 1951.
This is the first time that a candidate from the BJP, which was established in April 1980, has entered the lower house of Parliament without any electoral contest. Dalal was declared elected from the seat on Monday after the nomination papers of the Congress candidate from Surat constituency were canceled and the names of other candidates were withdrawn.
Read- Wedding card printed in such a way that it created an uproar, now the police is searching for the groom.
Candidates have already won unopposed
Saurashtra, now a part of Gujarat, was a separate province between 1948 and 1956. Election Commission data shows that the Congress candidate was elected unopposed from the then Halar Lok Sabha seat. In the first general elections held in independent India in 1951–52, Major General M S Himmatsinghji won the Halar seat in the then Saurashtra province without any contest. Areas of present-day Jamnagar, Devbhoomi Dwarka, Morbi and Rajkot districts came under this constituency. Saurashtra became a part of Gujarat in 1960.
Descendant of the rulers of the erstwhile princely state of Nawanagar, Himmat Singhji served as the first Deputy Defense Minister of India and then the first Lieutenant Governor of Himachal Pradesh (which became a full-fledged state in 1971). Voting for Surat seat was to be held on May 7. According to the District Election Office, except Dalal, all the eight candidates who filed nomination papers for Surat Lok Sabha seat withdrew their names on the last day, including four independents, leaders of three small parties and Pyarelal Bharti of Bahujan Samaj Party.
The nomination of Congress candidate Nilesh Kumbhani from Surat seat was canceled on Sunday after there was prima facie discrepancy in the signatures of the proposers, the returning officer said. The nomination papers of Suresh Padsala, who had filed nomination as the party’s alternative candidate, were also cancelled.
Nearly 35 years before Dalal achieved this feat, National Conference’s Mohammad Shafi Bhat was declared elected unopposed from the Srinagar seat in the 1989 Lok Sabha elections. After this, in 2012, Dimple Yadav of Samajwadi Party was declared elected unopposed in the by-election on Kannauj Lok Sabha seat.
According to the data available on the Election Commission website, after the first Lok Sabha elections, before Dalal, 25 candidates were elected unopposed, most of whom were from Congress. Amit Dholakia, political analyst and professor of political science at Maharaja Sayajirao University of Vadodara, said it is “unfortunate” for democracy for candidates to be elected unopposed.
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Tags: Loksabha Election 2024, Loksabha Elections
FIRST PUBLISHED: April 23, 2024, 08:03 IST