The BJP's Mukesh Dalal has become the first candidate in the last 12 years to have won a Lok Sabha election unopposed. He is also perhaps the first candidate from the BJP to have ever won a parliamentary poll unopposed.
His victory from the Surat parliamentary constituency comes close on the heels of 10 BJP candidates winning uncontested in the just-held assembly elections in Arunachal Pradesh.
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Dalal was on Monday elected unopposed from Surat Lok Sabha constituency in Gujarat after all other nominees withdrew from the fray, a poll official said. The candidature of the Congress' Nilesh Kumbhani was rejected a day earlier after the district returning officer prima facie found discrepancies in the signature of the proposers.
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This is the first victory of the Bharatiya Janata Party in the ongoing seven-phased Lok Sabha elections.
Before Dalal's unopposed entry to the 18th Lok Sabha, there have been at least 34 others who have won the parliamentary polls since 1951 without an electoral battle.
Samajwadi Party's Dimple Yadav had won the Kannauj Lok Sabha bypoll in 2012 unopposed. The seat was vacated by her husband Akhilesh Yadav after he became the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh.
Amongst the other prominent leaders who have won parliamentary polls unopposed are Y B Chavan, Farooq Abdullah, Hare Krishna Mahtab, T T Krishnamachari, P M Syeed and S C Jamir.
Of the candidates who have entered the Lok Sabha without a contest, the maximum have been from the Congress. Sikkim and Srinagar constituencies have seen such unopposed elections twice.
While most candidates have won polls unopposed in general or regular elections, there have been at least nine, including Dimple Yadav, who have won bypolls uncontested.
A maximum of seven candidates won the general elections uncontested in 1957, followed by five each in 1951 and 1967 polls. While three candidates won uncontested in 1962 and two in 1977, one candidate each won the polls in a similar fashion in 1971, 1980 and 1989.
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