The nomination forms of Congress' Surat Lok Sabha candidate Nilesh Kumbhani were rejected on Sunday after his three proposers had submitted affidavits to the district returning officer claiming the signatures on them were not theirs.
The nomination form of Suresh Padsala, the Congress' substitute candidate from Surat, was also invalidated, pushing Gujarat's principal opposition party out of the poll fray in the city. In his order, Returning Officer Sourabh Pardhi said the three nomination forms submitted by Kumbhani and Padsala were rejected after prima facie discrepancy was found in the signatures of the proposers and they did not appear to be genuine. “Hence, Kumbhani's nomination form has been rejected,” Pardhi said in the order.
“The proposers, in their affidavits, had stated that they had not signed the forms themselves,” Pardhi's order informed. Confirming the development, the Congress party's lawyer Babu Mangukiya said, "Nomination forms of Dinesh Kumbhani and Suresh Padsala have been rejected after the four proposers said signatures on the forms were not theirs." Mangukiya said the next course of action will be to approach the High Court and Supreme Court.
