Out of race in Surat, Congress nominee does a vanishing act

Disqualified Congress Surat candidate Nilesh Kumbhani has gone missing, prompting the local workers to hold a protest outside his residence. 

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 residence. 

Mr. Dalal was declared the winner after the remaining candidates in the fray withdrew their nomination papers on April 22.

The Congress workers, who protested outside Mr. Kumbhani’s locked house in Poona locality of Surat city on April 23, called him a “traitor” and “murderer of democracy”. 

“He is missing, his phone is switched off and his location remains unknown. He was last seen on April 21 when his nomination papers were rejected,” said local Congress workers who are furious at Mr. Kumbhani’s “irresponsible conduct.” The party workers even pasted posters at the gate of his locked house that read “janta ka gaddar (people’s traitor).” 

Mr. Kumbhani’s nomination papers were rejected on April 21 after his three proposers denied that they signed the papers. The three proposers are also missing since April 19. 

In Delhi, the party has approached the Election Commission (EC) seeking its intervention in Surat where all rival candidates opted out of the contest one by one, paving the way for BJP’s Mr. Dalal to be declared the winner without election. 

In its plea to the EC, the Opposition party has asked the the poll body to use powers under Article 324 “for setting aside the order passed by the Returning Officer cancelling Mr. Kumbhani’s nomination, directing restoration of his candidature from the Surat Lok Sabha constituency; or in the alternative, (accepting) nomination of the backup candidate for the INC, Suresh Padsala”.