BJP candidate to win Surat seat unopposed as rival nominees withdraw

BJPs Mukesh Dalal is set to get elected unopposed from Surat Lok Sabha seat after all other candidates withdrew from the fray, the partys Gujarat unit chief C R Paatil said on Monday.Surat has presented the first Lotus to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

BJP's Mukesh Dalal is set to get elected unopposed from Surat Lok Sabha seat after all other candidates withdrew from the fray, the party's Gujarat unit chief C R Paatil said on Monday.

''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,'' Paatil posted on X (formerly Twitter).

On the last day of withdrawal of the nomination forms on Monday, as many as 8 candidates, mostly Independents and Pyarelal Bharti of Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), withdrew their papers. Notably, the candidature of Congress' Nilesh Kumbhani from Surat seat was rejected on Sunday after the district returning officer prima facie found discrepancies in the signature of the proposers.

The nomination form of Suresh Padsala, the Congress' substitute candidate from Surat, was also invalidated.