Farooq Abdullah (L) and TT Krishnamachari (R) had also won Lok Sabha polls unopposed from the Congress. (Images: PTI/X)
The BJP leaders expressed happiness over his win and said that the “first lotus” has bloomed in the nation
Mukesh Dalal, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s candidate from Surat, Gujarat, won the Lok Sabha elections unopposed on Monday after the Returning Officer rejected the Congress’ pick and other candidates withdrew their nomination.
This is the first time that a BJP candidate won uncontested. The last time such a victory took place was when Mohammad Shafi Bhat of the National Conference won the Srinagar parliamentary seat unopposed in Jammu and Kashmir.
Before Dalal, as many as 25 candidates won the general elections unopposed. Let’s take a look at these previous victories:
| S.NO | YEAR | CANDIDATE | PARTY | CONSTITUENCY | STATE |
| 1 | 1951 | TA Ramalinga Chettiar | INC | Coimbatore | Tamil Nadu |
| 2 | 1951 | T Sangana | INC | Rayagada Phulba | Odisha |
| 3 | 1951 | Krishna Charya Joshi | INC | Yadgir | Hyderabad |
| 4 | 1951 | Major Gen MS Himatsinhji | INC | Halar | Saurashtra |
| 5 | 1951 | Anand Chand | IND | Bilaspur | Bilaspur |
| 6 | 1957 | D Satyanarayana Raju | INC | Rajamundry | Andhra Pradesh |
| 7 | 1957 | TN Vishwanath Reddy | INC | Rajampet | Andhra Pradesh |
| 8 | 1957 | Sangam Lakshmi Bai | INC | Vicarabad | Andhra Pradesh |
| 9 | 1957 | Bijoy Chandra Bhagavati | INC | Darrang | Assam |
| 10 | 1957 | Mangrubabu Uike | INC | Mandla | Madhya Pradesh |
| 11 | 1957 | T Ganapathy | INC | Tiruchendur | Madras |
| 12 | 1957 | J Siddananjappa H | INC | Hassan | Madras |
| 13 | 1962 | TT Krishnamachari | INC | Tiruchendur | Madras |
| 14 | 1962 | Harekrushna Mahtab | INC | Angul | Odisha |
| 15 | 1962 | Manabendra Shah | INC | Tehri Garhawal | Uttar Pradesh |
| 16 | 1967 | KL Rao | INC | Vijayawada | Andhra Pradesh |
| 17 | 1967 | R Brahma | INC | Kokrajhar | Assam |
| 18 | 1967 | MS Qureshi | INC | Anantnag | Jammu and Kashmir |
| 19 | 1967 | K Bakula | INC | Ladakh | Jammu and Kashmir |
| 20 | 1967 | Chubatoshi | NNO | Nagaland | Nagaland |
| 21 | 1971 | Padanatha Mohammed Sayeed | INC | LM and A Islands | Laccadive, Minicoy, and Amindivi Islands |
| 22 | 1977 | Rinchin Khandu Khimre | INC | Arunachal West | Arunachal Pradesh |
| 23 | 1977 | Chatra Bahadur Chhetri | INC | Sikkim | Sikkim |
| 24 | 1980 | JKN | Srinagar | Jammu and Kashmir | |
| 25 | 1989 | JKN | Srinagar | Jammu and Kashmir | |
| 26 | 2024 | Mukeshkumar Dalal | BJP | Surat | Gujarat |
Notably, Dala’s unopposed victory stirred a political controversy, with opposition leaders, including Congress MP Rahul Gandhi, slamming the decision. But other BJP leaders expressed happiness over his win and said that the “first lotus” has bloomed in the nation.
Mukesh Dalal’s win comes just about two weeks before the polling for the third of the seven-phase Lok Sabha elections. All 26 seats of Gujarat will go into polling on May 7.
The first phase of Lok Sabha polls covering 21 states and Union Territories took place on April 19. The second phase polling is set to take place on April 26.
In this general election, around 97 crore people will elect their representatives from 543 constituencies and as per data, a 6 per cent increase has been noted in the registered voters from the 2019 LS polls.
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