SURAT: Nilesh Kumbhani, whose nomination form for Surat Lok Sabha seat in Gujarat was rejected on April 21 due to issues with the signatures of proposers, on Friday claimed his Congress colleagues did not help during campaigning.

The party hit back saying the cancellation of nomination was part of Kumbhani's "plan".

Kumbhani was suspended for six years by the Congress earlier in the day, which said the party's disciplinary committee had concluded that his nomination form was rejected due to gross negligence on his part or "in connivance with the BJP".

In a video he shared with the media, Kumbhani said he had received offers from the BJP in the past but remained with the Congress all these years and even kept his office open in Varachha area despite losing elections.

"When I was coming to Ahmedabad to file a petition in the High Court regarding my nomination form, some Congress workers had staged a protest outside my house in Surat, which forced me to return.

Congress leaders used to remain absent during my poll rallies as well as my door-to-door campaign," he claimed in the video.

"The Congress leadership did not even give a list of workers who were supposed to be given booth duties during the election. Those who are speaking against me today are actually working in connivance with the BJP and left me to fend for myself. Though I was denied a ticket in the 2017 assembly polls, I did not desert the Congress," he further claimed.

Hitting back at Kumbhani, Gujarat Congress leader Prafull Togadia said the former had betrayed his party and the people of Surat.

"He is making false allegations. He first made his relatives his proposers and then claimed they were kidnapped. When we asked him to lodge a police complaint, he told the media nothing happened. It was his plan to get his nomination cancelled. People of Surat will never forgive him," claimed Togadia.

Kumbhani, who was a former corporator in the Surat Municipal Corporation, had unsuccessfully fought the 2022 assembly polls on a Congress ticket from Kamrej.

On April 21, his nomination form was rejected after his three proposers submitted affidavits to the district returning officer claiming the signatures on it were not theirs.

The nomination form of Suresh Padsala, the Congress' substitute candidate, was also invalidated on the same grounds.

On April 22, the BJP's Mukesh Dalal was declared elected unopposed from Surat after all other candidates, including from the BSP, withdrew their nominations.

Following the declaration of result on April 22, Kumbhani had gone incommunicado and his whereabouts are still not known.