The Congress’s 2024 candidate in Gujarat’s Surat parliamentary constituency, Nilesh Kumbhani, whose “faulty” nomination had given the BJP its first-ever uncontested win in the Lok Sabha polls, is now back in the news.
Recently, senior state BJP leader and Union Jal Shakti Minister C R Patil visited Kumbhani’s factory at Rajula in Amreli district along with several party leaders, triggering speculations.
Patil’s bid to visit Kumbhani came even as the BJP office-bearers in the Jalalpore unit in Navsari adjoining Surat resigned en masse from their posts in protest against the state party leadership’s rejection of their demand for the appointment of a local Koli leader Ashok Patel as the district unit’s general secretary.
Patil is a four-term Navsari MP. The Navsari municipality was among urban bodies upgraded to municipal corporation last year. The urban local body elections across the state are round the corner.
Who is Nilesh Kumbhani?
Former Congress corporator of the Surat Municipal Corporation, Kumbhani had gone incommunicado for weeks after his nomination form as the Congress’s Lok Sabha candidate was rejected over “discrepancies” in April 2024. The Congress had accused him of allegedly conniving with the BJP to bungle his own nomination.
A Patidar leader, Kumbhani runs various businesses, including a real estate enterprise in Surat. He had backed the Patidar quota agitation in 2015, and has been close to its leaders such as Hardik Patel, Alplesh Kathiriya and Dharmik Malaviya. While Hardik is currently a BJP MLA, Kathiriya and Malaviya are now with the BJP after a stint in the AAP.
In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Kumbhani got the Congress ticket from the Surat seat, where the BJP fielded Mukesh Dalal as its nominee. In a dramatic turn of events, Kumbhani ‘s nomination was rejected over alleged forging of signatures of his proposers.
The nomination of the Congress’s dummy candidate in the Surat seat was also rejected on the same ground. Eight remaining candidates withdrew from the fray one by one. While four of them were Independents, three belonged to little-known parties and one was a BSP candidate. Surat City BSP president Satish Sonavne had then alleged the BJP’s hand in the withdrawal of its nominee.
These rejections and withdrawals led Dalal to become the first-ever BJP leader to win a Lok Sabha poll uncontested. Patil was then Gujarat BJP president, and this victory was largely credited to him.
The state Congress maintained that Kumbhani had not consulted the party before filing his nomination. Following the row, he “went underground”, even as the Congress suspended him from the party.
Navsari BJP resignations
About 58 BJP office-bearers of the Jalalpore party unit resigned from their posts in mid-February after the state leadership, ignoring their demand to appoint Ashok Patel as the Navsari district panel’s general secretary, named him as its vice-president instead.
These BJP leaders, belonging mainly to the Koli community, submitted their resignations to Navsari BJP chief Bhuralal Shah. The resignations of 35 of them were accepted, while the rest withdrew it.
Patil’s meeting with Kumbhani
On 28 February, Patil addressed a gathering of farmers at the marketing yard at Rajula of the Saurashtra region’s Amreli, whose many natives have been part of Surat’s diamond industry. After the rally, the Union Minister visited Kumbhani’s unit managed by his father, which processes groundnuts and roasted chickpeas for exports. Patil met Kumbhani and his family, and had tea and snacks with them.
On his meeting with Kumbhani, Patil told The Indian Express: “The schedule of the farmer event at the Rajula marketing yard was fixed a long time ago. Nilesh Kumbhani called to invite me to his factory near the marketing yard… So I paid a visit to the factory (after the farmers’ meeting), talked to his father and brother – they were all happy to meet me.”
A video of Paatil walking with the suspended Congress leader at his factory did the rounds on various social media platforms.
Patil also claimed that the BJP leaders’ resignations would not cause any damage to the Navsari party unit. He told The Indian Express, “I am aware that some BJP leaders have resigned from their newly assigned posts in Jalalpore. The appointment of organisational leaders is made by our state parliamentary board, and the local BJP unit has no powers in this regard. New faces will be appointed to the vacant posts. The party is bigger than any leader. We know who is behind these resignations.”
Patil also claimed that “In the upcoming local body polls the BJP will win all – including elections to taluka panchayat, district panchayats and Navsari Municipal Corporation.”
On his part, Kumbhani told the The Indian Express, “While I remain suspended from the (Congress) party, I am on talking terms with the BJP and AAP leaders in Surat. I have been regularly speaking with C R Patil and several other BJP leaders. We were informed that Patil will attend the farmers’ meet at Rajula on February 28. So I called him up and invited him to visit my factory there. Accompanied by some BJP MLA and leaders, Patil then came to meet us.”
The Surat civic body election is going to be a “straight fight between BJP and AAP with Congress nowhere in the picture”, said Kumbhani. “I have not decided about which party I would join now. But I have made up my mind to contest the 2027 Assembly election,” he added.
Recently, senior state BJP leader and Union Jal Shakti Minister C R Patil visited Kumbhani's factory at Rajula in Amreli district along with several party leaders, triggering speculations. 
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