The BJP’s candidate from the Surat Lok Sabha constituency in Gujarat was declared elected unopposed.
- This follows the rejection of the nomination paper of the candidate set up by the Congress party and the withdrawal of nominations by other candidates.
- This is not the first time, where a candidate was elected unopposed to the Lok Sabha. 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.
Law related to nominations
- Section 33 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 (RP Act) contains the requirements for a valid nomination.
- As per the RP Act, an elector above 25 years of age can contest Lok Sabha election from any constituency in India, however, the proposer(s) of the candidate should be elector(s) from that respective constituency where the nomination is being filed.
- If a candidate is contesting as a nominee of a recognised political party, one voter from the constituency is required to propose their candidacy.
- However, if the candidate is contesting as an independent candidate or as a candidate nominated by a registered but unrecognised political party, then ten electors from the constituency must sign the nomination paper as proposers.
- According to the Section 36 of the RP Act, the Returning Officer (RO) must verify the signatures of the proposers.
- If, after a brief inquiry, the RO determines that the signature is not genuine, as claimed by the proposer, the nomination paper will be rejected due to insufficient proposers.
