A day after BJP's candidate from Surat Mukesh Dalal was elected unopposed, Union Minister Hardeep Puri on Tuesday said this was not the first time a candidate was elected in that manner. He said since Independence, 35 candidates have been elected unopposed.
"Surat is not the first time that a candidate has been elected unopposed to Parliament. 35 candidates have been elected unopposed in general elections & bypolls since independence," he said in a tweet.
Dalal was declared elected after the nomination of the Congress candidate was rejected and other candidates withdrew from the fray. Dalal won uncontested - the election was scheduled on May 7 - after the other candidates withdrew on Monday, the last day of withdrawal of papers.
On Sunday, the nomination of Congress candidate Nilesh Kumbhani was rejected after a preliminary examination revealed inconsistencies in the signatures of proposers. The nomination form of Suresh Padsala, the Congress' "substitute" candidate from Surat, was also invalidated.
Former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi, calling him a "dictator". He said taking away the right of the people to choose their leader is another step towards destroying the Constitution of Baba Saheb Ambedkar. "I am saying it again - this is not just an election to form a government, this is an election to save the country, this is an election to protect the Constitution."
Today, Puri responded to some of the comments by the Congress. "With yet another ill-researched comment, this time on the unopposed election of Sh Mukesh Dalal Ji in Surat, the ‘young’ & aspiring Congress leader continues to live up to his famous nickname," he said.
"His faith in democracy will be strengthened when he discovers that more than half of the 35 candidates were from the Congress party; & his belief in conspiracy theories will be shaken when he realises that this list includes his alliance partners Sh Farooq Abdullah Ji in 1980 & Smt Dimple Yadav Ji in 2012," the minister added.
Puri said that Gandhi's "fear-mongering on India’s Constitution" is proof of why a lesson in history would have done him no harm. "His lament, one must say, is highly selective because he has apparently not heard of a certain Capt Viriato Fernandes, the I.N.D.I.Alliance candidate from South Goa who is demanding dual citizenship for people of Goa stating that the Constitution was thrust upon them," he said.