The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had approached Independent candidates in Gujarat’s Surat, and asked them to withdraw their nominations for the Lok Sabha election, the party’s national general secretary Vinod Tawde said on April 23. This led the BJP’s Mukeshkumar Dalal to become the first Lok Sabha candidate in 12 years to win unopposed.
“We requested the Independent candidates [to withdraw], and they withdrew. Which part of this led to a decline in the level of politics?” Mr. Tawde replied when asked if the BJP has stooped to a political low.
This was during a media interaction in Mumbai on April 23, where Mr. Tawde had himself accused the Congress of stooping to a new low in politics; this after the Opposition party’s South Goa candidate Captain Viriato Fernandes had remarked that the Constitution was forced upon Goans.
When asked if the BJP approached all the other candidates to withdraw he responded, “We were approaching everyone to withdraw, even before they filed for their respective nominations.”
“I am contesting to win. As per the rules and as per the Constitution, if everybody withdraws then there is no candidate. If anybody wanted to vote for NOTA then they should have done so. This means NOTAwalas are also supporting the BJP there,” Mr. Tawde remarked.
In Surat, a total of 15 nominations were filed, including those representing the Congress, the Bahujan Samaj Party, and others. Six of them were rejected by the Returning Officer and the others withdrew their applications leaving behind BJP’s Mr. Dalal as an unopposed candidate.
