Opinion BJP’s uncontested wins in Indore and Surat: Selected to office

In the 2019 general election, a total of 5,67,636 electors voted for the first runners-up in the Surat and Indore Lok Sabha constituencies. While BJP candidates won both seats by massive margins (74.5 per cent of the vote in Surat and 65 per cent in Indore), they did so through the competitive, often adversarial, process that is an Indian election. Five years on, it could be argued that the BJP candidate from Surat, Mukesh Dalal, has beaten his predecessor’s record: Congress candidate Nilesh Kumbhani’s nomination form was rejected by the District Election Officer after three proposers submitted affidavits saying the signatures on the form were not theirs. Other candidates too withdrew, making Dalal the first MP-elect this election cycle. The lack of an electoral contest has robbed lakhs of voters in Surat of their franchise. Now, a similar saga is unfolding in Indore with Congress candidate Akshay Kanti Bam withdrawing his nomination. The developments in the two constituencies run counter to democratic principles and procedure.

The Congress has, predictably, accused the BJP of intimidating candidates and promising them inducements. It has said that it will contest the Surat election in court after June 4. In Indore, the fact that Akshay Kanti Bam has been photographed with BJP leader and state minister Kailash Vijayvargiya, who has also welcomed him to the party in a post on X, casts a shadow over the nomination and poll process. The potential erosion of faith in the electoral process is something that should worry the ruling party as much as the Opposition. A Member of Parliament who gains office unopposed — in practice or in effect — especially when there is no broader political consensus behind such an outcome, is in essence selected, not elected.

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It is important to underline that Surat and Indore are anomalies. This general election, like all the ones before it, is being fought robustly across the length and breadth of India, with the Election Commission overseeing what is arguably the most challenging poll in the world. The EC must now live up to its well-deserved reputation as a watchdog. It needs to thoroughly investigate the dropping out of candidates in the two constituencies and put to rest any doubts about the sanctity of the nomination and poll process. In India’s constitutional scheme, the voter is the ultimate source from which the entire edifice of the state derives authority and legitimacy. The fundamental right of every citizen to exercise their franchise should not be abridged.