BJP bags first Lok Sabha seat in 2024 polls; Surat nominee declared elected
Surat, Apr 22: The BJP won its first seat in the ongoing Lok Sabha polls, as its candidate Mukesh Dalal was on Monday declared elected from Surat, after the nomination of 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. They included four Independents, three from smaller parties and Pyarelal Bharti of Bahujan Samaj Party.
On Sunday, the nomination of Congress candidate Nilesh Kumbhani was rejected after a preliminary examination revealed inconsistencies in the signatures of proposers, an election official said.
The nomination form of Suresh Padsala, the Congress' "substitute" candidate from Surat, was also invalidated.
"I declare that Mukeshkumar Chandrakant Dalal, sponsored by the BJP, has been duly elected to fill the seat in the House from Surat parliamentary constituency," election officer Saurabh Pardhi told reporters, after handing over the certificate of election to Dalal.
"Surat has presented the first Lotus to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. I congratulate our candidate for Surat Lok Sabha seat Mukesh Dalal for getting elected unopposed," state BJP president C R Paatil posted on X.
The Congress claimed the BJP was frightened by the anger of MSME owners and the business community and attempted "match-fixing" even in the Surat Lok Sabha seat which the ruling party has been winning since 1984.
Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh claimed that democracy is under threat.
"'Aap chronology samajhiye' (Understand the chronology): Surat District Election Officer rejects the Congress' candidate for Surat Lok Sabha Nilesh Kumbhani's nomination for 'discrepancies in the verification of signatures of three proposers'. On similar grounds, officials reject the nomination of Suresh Padsala, the INC's substitute candidate from Surat. The Congress is left without a candidate," he said on X.
"All other candidates withdraw their nomination except the BJP's candidate, Mukesh Dalal. The BJP candidate declared 'elected unopposed' from Surat Lok Sabha seat on April 22, 2024, nearly two weeks before polling on May 7, 2024," Ramesh added.
"Our elections, our democracy, Babasaheb Ambedkar's Constitution -- all are under a generational threat. This is the most important election of our lifetime," Ramesh said.
A Congress candidate claimed that the BJP is trying to break the opposition using money acquired through corrupt means.
"People are watching this and they will give a befitting reply to the ruling party," said Congress candidate for Rajkot seat, Paresh Dhanani.
Paatil told reporters in Surat that going by the way people are extending their support to BJP, everyone is confident of achieving the target of 400 seats.
He said the BJP will win the remaining 25 seats in Gujarat, where voting will be held on May 7 in a single phase.
"Congress did a drama ahead of the election by claiming that the proposers of its candidate had been kidnapped. That allegation was refuted by their candidate himself. The party leaders then tried to put pressure on poll authorities and spread rumours. But, truth ultimately prevailed today,” Paatil said.
In the 2019 polls, BJP won all 26 constituencies in Gujarat, the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
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Traffic fraud: Fake 'no-entry' sticker racket busted in Delhi, mastermind among 3 held
New Delhi (PTI): Police here have busted a crime syndicate involved in traffic fraud and extortion, arresting three people including the alleged mastermind who sold fake stickers to help commercial vehicles bypass no-entry restrictions, an official said on Saturday.
The police said they dismantled a third organised syndicate linked to traffic-related frauds, with the arrest of Rinku Rana alias Bhushan, his associate Sonu Sharma and Mukesh Kumar alias Pakodi, who was also connected to another extortion syndicate.
According to the police, Rinku Rana was running a well-organised network that facilitated the movement of commercial goods vehicles during restricted hours by selling fake 'marka' or stickers for Rs 2,000 to Rs 5,000 per vehicle every month. The stickers were falsely projected as authorisation to evade traffic challans.
During raids, the police recovered Rs 31 lakh in cash, property documents worth several crores of rupees, over 500 fake stickers and six mobile phones allegedly used to operate the syndicate.
The crackdown followed a complaint filed by a traffic police officer in April this year after a commercial vehicle tried to evade checking by producing a fake sticker claiming exemption from enforcement action.
Investigation revealed that social media groups were being used to coordinate the illegal movement of vehicles and alert drivers about traffic police checkpoints, police said.
"A parallel system was being run to cheat drivers and vehicle owners while undermining traffic enforcement. On the basis of evidence, provisions related to organised crime under the BNS were invoked," a senior police officer said.
Sonu Sharma, the police said, managed social media groups through which stickers were sold and real-time alerts were circulated regarding traffic police movement. He also acted as a link between Rana and drivers operating in the field.
In a related development, Mukesh Kumar alias Pakodi, an associate of Rajkumar alias Raju Meena, who was earlier arrested under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA), was also apprehended.
Mukesh allegedly helped extort money from transporters and was involved in blackmailing traffic police personnel by recording enforcement actions, the police said.
Investigators alleged the syndicate led by Rajkumar deployed drivers to deliberately violate traffic rules and secretly record police officials during challans, later using manipulated videos to extort money under threat of false allegations.
The police said that in total, eight accused belonging to three different organised crime syndicates linked to traffic frauds and extortion have been arrested so far.
Further investigation is underway to trace the remaining members, conduct financial probes, and analyse digital evidence recovered during the raids, officials added.
