Congress’s Surat nominee Nilesh Kumbhani surfaces, says ‘Cong betrayed me’, candidature rejection ‘appropriate answer’

Kumbhani, who was suspended from the Congress for six years last month, had been associated with the party for 25 years and had contested Surat Municipal Corporation as well as state elections.

Surrounded by supporters in a cabin built on an open plot in a Yogi Chowk residential society, outside which stood armed policemen, Kumbhani told The Indian Express on Saturday, “I have given an appropriate response to the Congress, which betrayed me in 2017 state elections.”

“My name was announced in the party list of candidates for Kamrej Assembly seat in Surat district in the 2017 elections. On the day of filing nomination, I, alongwith thousands of my supporters, reached the collector’s office and at the last moment, the party gave the ticket to Ashok Jirawala (president of Federation of Gujarat Weavers Association) and I felt insulted,” he added.

“I was pained and it became a topic of discussion among the Patidar community. The Congress had betrayed me and this (rejection of his candidature from Surat) was an appropriate answer,” Kumbhani said.
Asked why the question of betrayal and “revenge” was not settled in the 2022 state elections when he again contested from Kamrej as the

Congress candidate, Kumbhani said: “I got 27,511 votes in the 2022 election from Kamrej seat. I have a good set-up of workers in Kamrej, which falls in Bardoli Lok Sabha constituency and not in Surat (from where he was fielded). So, I thought of teaching the party a lesson and I did.”

A Patidar and a real estate businessman, Kumbhani’s Lok Sabha nomination was rejected after the BJP candidate’s agent Dinesh Jodhani alleged that the signatures of proposers Jagdish Savaliya (Kumbhani’s brother-in-law), Ramesh Polra (Kumbhani’s business partner) and Dhruvin Dhamelia, as well as Padsala’s proposer Vishal Koladiya, were forged on the nomination forms.

The proposers then filed affidavits before Surat collector and District Election Officer Sourabh Pardhi stating that their signatures have been forged. Eight other candidates who had filed nominations from the Surat seat withdrew their candidature by April 22, the last day of withdrawal, after which BJP candidate Mukesh Dalal was declared elected uncontested.

“I was busy campaigning, holding door-to-door meetings and rallies independently. My election agent-cum-lawyer Ajay Gondaliya was given the task to prepare my nomination form as well as that of my dummy candidate. I signed my nomination form but cannot say what happened to the remaining ones (documents of proposers),” Kumbhani said.

“Surat Congress leaders did not support me in the elections. My supporters, including my brother in-law Jagdish Savaliya, were angry with me and wanted to teach a lesson to the Congress over how it betrayed me in the 2017 state elections. I tried to pacify them and told them to join the campaign and work for my victory. They finally reached the collector’s office and said that their signatures were fake. They had not signed on the nomination form in front of me or my dummy candidate,” he added.

Kumbhani claimed he was “in an unknown place” in Surat after his nomination was rejected and also spent a few days in Saurashtra. “After my form was rejected, I left for Ahmedabad and spoke to Congress lawyer B M Mangukiya to file a petition in Gujarat High Court. On the way to Karjan in Vadodara, I came to know that Congress leaders and workers protested and hung banners on the door of my house, terming me as a traitor. I lost my temper and returned to Surat and hid… I switched off my phone.”

“I complained about this poster incident to our state president Shaktisinh Gohil and senior leader Paresh Dhanani. They told me that my statements would damage the image of the party and affect the elections,” he added.

When contacted, Dhanani, Congress’ Rajkot candidate, said: “Nilesh Kumbhani did not call me after his form was rejected. I had told him that the party was backing him and there was nothing to worry. Now, all I want to say is that he is a traitor and betrayed the party and over 18 lakh voters of Surat city.”

Kumbhani, meanwhile, said: “I did not know that nominations can get rejected due to signature issues. I learnt this for the first time. My office staffers and supporters were also against me contesting the election… I have not decided my future plan of whether to join AAP or BJP, as my own party has suspended me for six years. I will continue to do social work my the people in Kamrej.”

Kumbhani claimed that Congress would not have won the election from Surat. “People are happy and thanked me for not making them to stand in scorching heat to cast their votes,” he claimed.

Asked about the presence of police personnel at his house, Kumbhani said, “There is a threat to my life and thus, police have given me protection.”