"Surat not first time but 35 candidates...": Hardeep Singh Puri replies to Rahul Gandhi on BJP's first win in Gujarat

In a post on X, Puri said that half out of the 35 candidates were from the Congress party.

"Surat is not the first time that a candidate has been elected unopposed to Parliament. 35 candidates have been elected unopposed in general elections and by-polls since independence. With yet another ill-researched comment, this time on the unopposed election of Mukesh Dalal Ji in Surat, the 'young' & aspiring Congress leader continues to live up to his famous nickname," he said.

"His faith in democracy will be strengthened when he discovers that more than half of the 35 candidates were from the Congress party, and his belief in conspiracy theories will be shaken when he realises that this list includes his alliance partners Farooq Abdullah Ji in 1980 and Dimple Yadav Ji in 2012," Hardeep Singh Puri added.

The Union Minister also mentioned that his (Rahul Gandhi) fear-mongering about India's Constitution is proof of why a history lesson would have done him no harm.

"His lament, one must say, is highly selective because he has not heard of a certain Capt Viriato Fernandes, the I.N.D.I. Alliance candidate from South Goa who is demanding dual citizenship for the people of Goa stating that the Constitution was thrust upon them," Puri said.

On Monday, the nomination papers of the Congress party's candidate Nilesh Kumbhani were rejected after his three proposers claimed in an affidavit to the district election officer that they had not signed his nomination form.

In his order, Returning Officer Sourabh Pardhi said that all other eight candidates in the fray had withdrawn their nominations except Mukesh Dalal.

Gujarat BJP Chief CR Paatil said the victory of Mukesh Dalla was dedicated to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi sir and that the state unit was confident that the BJP would repeat its performance of 2019 and win all 16 seats in the state. (ANI)