Congress to take legal action over Surat seat row after Lok Sabha elections: Abhishek Manu Singhvi

Following this, the remaining eight candidates, including one from the Bahujan Samaj Party, withdrew their nomination forms after which the DEO declared BJP candidate Mukesh Dalal elected unopposed from Surat on April 22.

On Friday, the Gujarat Congress suspended Kumbhani from the party for six years.

However, senior advocate Singhvi Sunday asserted that a returning officer cannot judge a signature’s authenticity. “Legal recourse in these matters happens after the election. Nobody is talking about winning or losing but we are talking about the principles of it. No returning officer can judge a signature’s authenticity. That is not a summary procedure. The returning officer only has a summary procedure. He cannot decide signatures. Yes, he can decide (if) the man standing in front of me is not Abhishek Singhvi; he is a different man. Those are the summary things he can decide. I wonder how… (he) can decide the authenticity of signatures without sending it to a forensics lab,” Singhvi replied to a question from The Indian Express.

Singhvi also highlighted that the returning officer forgot about NOTA. “He gave an interview two days back in which he proudly showed the handbook of the Election Commission, which says that when somebody withdraws and nobody is left, then declare the candidate left as elected. But that handbook was made before NOTA was born. NOTA is a candidate. As long as NOTA is alive and kicking on the paper, you cannot,” he stated.

He also questioned the actions stating that if the BJP was so sure of winning Surat, why they made it a “selection and not an election”. “On the contrary, if you were so sure you should have had an election,” he said.

Singhvi also alleged mockery of democracy. “Of the 417 BJP candidates in this Lok Sabha election, 116 are from various other parties (who later joined the BJP) of which a majority are from the Congress. Eighty-five per cent of such cases have been done after 2014. In states like Haryana, 50 per cent of those who say they are from the BJP are not…gimmick, gambit and gagging is the model of the BJP. They have adapted it and proved it again and again, and now, we are seeing a new definition not of election but of selection,” he said.

Referring to cases in other states in the past, including the Chandigarh Mayoral election, he added that first time is happenstance, second time is coincidence but third time is enemy action. “Here, it has been 12 times. It is some super enemy action,” he added.

Singhvi termed the cases of hate speech reported during election campaigns “unfortunate”. “It is not the PM on trial but the Election Commission. It takes decades to establish organisations, but only moments and months to destroy them. It is the Election Commission’s credibility at stake. I moved it (a complaint) 10 days back. The foundation of democracy is shattered as and when the election window is limited and you eat 10 important days. False equivalence is being created. Someone else does (violations), but notices are served to others,” he said.

On the Supreme Court rejecting the pleas seeking 100 per cent cross-verification of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) data with Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) records, Singhvi said that the matter raised several issues beyond those being talked about. “We are not per se on legal challenges of the existence of EVMs. In fact, to challenge the existence of EVMs two months before the election would be a mockery. This petition was to expand the 5 per cent check ambit,” he explained.