Nilesh Kumbhani, whose nomination form was rejected leading to a series of events which resulted in BJP’s Mukesh Dalal being elected unopposed from the Surat Lok Sabha seat, claimed he had received offers from the BJP in the past but remained with the Congress all these years.
The Congress Friday suspended Nilesh Kumbhani, the party’s candidate from the Surat Lok Sabha seat in Gujarat, whose candidature was rejected on April 21 due to errors in his nomination form, leading to a series of events which resulted in BJP’s Mukesh Dalal being elected unopposed from the seat.
The grand-old party suspended Kumbhani for six years, alleging his his nomination form was rejected due to gross negligence on his part or “in connivance with the BJP”, but Kumbhani has rejected the charges against him, claiming that he received no help from his party colleagues during campaigning.
‘Didn’t get support from Congress’
In a video, Nilesh Kumbhani claimed he had received offers from the BJP in the past but remained with the Congress all these years and even kept his office open in Varachha area despite losing elections.
“When I was coming to Ahmedabad to file a petition in the High Court regarding my nomination form, some Congress workers had staged a protest outside my house in Surat, which forced me to return. Congress leaders used to remain absent during my poll rallies as well as my door-to-door campaign,” he claimed in the video.
“The Congress leadership did not even give a list of workers who were supposed to be given booth duties during the election. Those who are speaking against me today are actually working in connivance with the BJP and left me to fend for myself. Though I was denied a ticket in the 2017 assembly polls, I did not desert the Congress,” he further claimed.
‘Part of plan’
Congress hit back at Kumbhani, claiming that getting the nomination cancelled was part of the “plan”, he cooked up with the BJP. Gujarat Congress leader Prafull Togadia accused Kumbhani of “betraying” the party and the people of Surat.
“He is making false allegations. First, he made his relatives his proposers and then claimed they were kidnapped. When we asked him to lodge a police complaint, he told the media nothing happened. It was his plan to get his nomination cancelled. People of Surat will never forgive him,” Togadia claimed.
Kumbhani, a former corporator in the Surat Municipal Corporation, had unsuccessfully fought the 2022 assembly polls on a Congress ticket from Kamrej.
Surat ‘walkover’
On April 21, his nomination form was rejected after his three proposers submitted affidavits to the district returning officer claiming the signatures on it were not theirs. Later, the nomination form of Suresh Padsala, the Congress’ substitute candidate, was also invalidated on the same grounds.
On April 22, the BJP’s Mukesh Dalal was declared elected unopposed from Surat after all other candidates, including from the BSP, withdrew their nominations.
Following the declaration of result on April 22, Kumbhani had gone incommunicado and his whereabouts are still not known.
(With PTI inputs)
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