Out of race in Surat, Cong. nominee does vanishing act

A day after the BJP’s Mukesh Dalal was elected unopposed in the Surat Lok Sabha seat, Congress candidate Nilesh Kumbhani — whose nomination papers were rejected on technical grounds — has gone incommunicado, prompting the local workers to hold a protest outside his house here.

Mr. Dalal was declared the winner after the remaining candidates in the fray withdrew their nomination papers on Monday.

The protesting Congress workers, who protested outside Mr. Kumbhani’s locked house in Poona locality of Surat city on Tuesday, called Mr. Kumbhani a “traitor” and “murderer of democracy”.

“He is missing, his phone is switched o— and his location remains unknown,” said the party workers.

The Congress workers, who are furious at Mr. Kumbhani’s “irresponsible conduct”, even pasted posters at the gate of his locked house that read “janta ka gaddar (people’s traitor)”.