Decode Politics: As BJP’s unopposed Lok Sabha win in Surat hangs on it, what is the role of a proposer?

The BJP on Monday won its first seat in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections unopposed as Congress Surat candidate Nilesh Kumbhani was disqualified owing to alleged discrepancies in his nomination papers, while eight other nominees withdrew from the fray. It is rare for a Lok Sabha seat to be won unopposed, and the first such win for the BJP.

The Congress has cried foul over the rejection of the nomination papers of both Kumbhani and its substitute candidate, Suresh Padsala, on the ground of “discrepancies in the verification of signatures of their proposers”.

So, who are proposers and what do Election Commission (EC) rules say with regard to grounds of rejection?

A candidate in the election race must have a proposer. According to EC rules, a proposer must be a registered elector of the Assembly or parliamentary constituency for which he or she endorses a candidate’s nomination. The nomination papers of the candidate must be signed by the proposer as well as the candidate for them to be deemed valid.

As per the Representation of the People Act, 1951, a candidate of a recognised state or national party needs one proposer, while an Independent or the candidate of an unrecognised party needs 10.

The EC allows a candidate to file up to four nominations for the same constituency, to be safe in case errors are spotted in any.

A proposer is mandated to sign at the designated part in a nomination paper. He or she can sign more than one nomination form for the same candidate as well as for different candidates.

The candidate and the proposer are mandated to be physically present while nomination papers are submitted to the Returning Officer (RO). The RO has to be satisfied that the name and electoral roll number of the candidate as well as the