BJP leader says party asked contestants in Surat to withdraw
BJP candidate Mukeshkumar Dalal wins unopposed; six papers were rejected by the Returning OŒcer and others withdrew their applications
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had approached Independent candidates in Surat and asked them to withdraw their nominations for the Lok Sabha election, the party’s national general secretary Vinod Tawde said on Tuesday. This led the BJP’s Mukeshkumar Dalal to become the ¦rst Lok Sabha candidate in 12 years to win unopposed.
“In politics, if you have ¦lled incorrect details in the form and if I haven’t raised an objection, the level doesn’t fall. We requested the Independent candidates [to withdraw], and they withdrew. Which part of this led to a decline in the level of politics?” Mr. Tawde replied when asked if the BJP has stooped to a political low.
This was during a media interaction in Mumbai on Tuesday, where Mr. Tawde had himself accused the Congress of stooping to a new low in politics; this after the Opposition party’s South Goa candidate Captain
Viriato Fernandes had remarked that the Constitution was forced upon Goans.
Asked if the BJP approached all the other candidates to withdraw, he responded, “We were approaching everyone to withdraw, even before they ¦led their respective nominations.”
“The ones who wanted None of the Above [NOTA] in the polls, should have ¦elded their candidate. Why should I be asked to ¦ll in form then; I am contesting to win. As per the rules and as per the Constitution,
if everybody withdraws then there is no candidate. If anybody wanted to vote for NOTA then they should have done so. This means NOTAwalas are also supporting the BJP there,” Mr. Tawde remarked.
In Surat, a total of 15 nominations were ¦led, including those representing the Congress, the Bahujan Samaj Party, and others. Six of them were rejected by the Returning O cer and the others withdrew their applications leaving behind the BJP’s Mr. Dalal as an unopposed candidate.
The Congress on Tuesday said that it would move the Supreme Court if the Election Commission (EC) did not decide on its complaint against Prime Minister Narendra Modi for suggesting that the Congress would redistribute the country’s wealth to Muslims if it came to power.
The Prime Minister had made the remark at a rally in Rajasthan’s Banswara on Sunday, following which the Congress, on Monday, moved the EC, seeking action against Mr. Modi. In its o cial representation to the EC, the Congress alleged that the Prime Minister had invoked religion and religious symbols to create enmity between groups.
“A no decision by the EC is certainly actionable and justiceable. It can be and shall be challenged. In 2019, I had led a delegation to the poll panel to complain against the Prime Minister and the Home Minister. Ultimately, the absence of any decision by the EC either way led me to approach the Supreme Court,” Congress leader and senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi told The Hindu.
“Time is of the essence here since the model code of conduct and the electoral window is very short. We shall do the same if the EC doesn’t decide. At the moment, what the decision will be is not so important but they [EC] must take a decision,” he added.
On Tuesday, Praveen Chakravarty, head of the All India Professional Congress, also complained to the EC about a fake WhatsApp message that claimed the Congress would “con¦scate two-thirds of your assets for the redistribution to the poor under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Redistribution Scheme”.
“I urge you to initiate appropriate action and stop the spread of such malicious rumours,” he wrote to the Chief Election