Why was the BJP Candidate Declared Winner in Surat?

April 25, 2024

What’s in Today’s Article?

Background:

The BJP’s candidate from the Surat Lok Sabha constituency in Gujarat has been declared elected unopposed.
This happened due to the rejection of the nomination paper of the candidate set up by the Congress party and the withdrawal of nominations by other candidates.

What is the Law for Nomination?

Section 33 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, talks about the rules for contesting in the Lok Sabha elections.
If a person is 25 or older, he/she can run from any part of the country.
However, the people who support the candidacy (called 'proposers') must be from the area where you want to run.
In case of a recognised party (national or state),the candidate only needs one person to propose his/her nomination.
However, if the candidate is running independently or from a smaller party, he/she will need ten people to support his/her candidature.
Also, one can submit up to four sets of nomination papers with different groups of proposers to make sure that the nomination gets accepted even if there's an issue with one set.
Section 36 of the same act talks about how the Returning Officer (the person in charge of elections in a particular area) checks these nomination papers.
They can't reject a nomination unless there's a significant problem with it.
However, if they find that the signatures on the papers aren't genuine, they can reject the nomination.

What Happened in the Case of Surat Lok Sabha Constituency?

In the present case, the candidate of the Congress party for the Surat constituency had filed three sets of nomination papers.
The proposers for these three nomination papers were his brother-in-law, nephew and business partner.
A BJP worker objected to his nomination alleging that the signatures of his proposers were not genuine.
The RO also received affidavits from the proposers claiming that they had not signed the nomination papers of the candidate.
He sought reply/clarification from the candidate within a day on the objections raised.
As the proposers could not be produced before the RO within the stipulated time for scrutiny, all three sets of nomination papers were rejected.
The election rules allow for a substitute candidate to be fielded by a political party.
The nomination of this substitute candidate would be accepted if the nomination of the original candidate is rejected.
In this case, the Congress party had fielded Suresh Padsala as its substitute candidate.
However, the nomination paper of the substitute candidate was also rejected for the same reason, that is of the proposer’s signature not being genuine.
The other nominations were either rejected or withdrawn paving the way for BJP candidate Mukesh Dalal to be declared winner.

What is the Legal Recourse in this Case?

Past instances
- There have been at least 35 candidates who have been elected unopposed to the Lok Sabha.
- Majority of them were in the first two decades after independence with the last being in 2012.
Present case
- In the Surat case, however, the Congress party has alleged that the proposers were coerced to backtrack on their signatures.
- It has approached the Election Commission (EC) seeking to set aside the decision of the RO and restart the election process.
Legal recourse
- However, it is unlikely that the EC would act on this request as Article 329(b) of the Constitution read with RP Act provides that no election shall be called into question except by an election petition before the concerned High Court.
- One of the grounds on which such an election petition can be filed is improper rejection of nomination papers.
- Hence, the legal recourse available is to file an election petition in the Gujarat High Court.
- The RP Act provides that High Courts shall endeavour to conclude such trials within six months, which has mostly not been followed in the past.
- Speedy disposal of election petitions would be a step in the right direction.

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