The Congress party has not fielded a single Muslim candidate for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls in Gujarat. The Bharuch Lok Sabha seat, which traditionally saw a Muslim candidate from Congress, has been allocated to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) as part of the seat-sharing agreement among the opposition INDIA bloc constituents.
Among national parties, only the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has fielded a Muslim candidate, Mohammad Anis Desai, from Gandhinagar for the May 7 polls in the state. The BSP had also fielded a Muslim candidate in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls from Panchmahal.
This time, 35 Muslim candidates are contesting the Lok Sabha polls across 25 out of the 26 seats in Gujarat, a decrease from 43 nominees from the community in 2019, according to Election Commission data. Most of these candidates are either contesting independently or have been fielded by lesser-known parties.
Vajirkhan Pathan, Gujarat Congress’s minority department chairman, stated, “The party has traditionally fielded at least one candidate from the Muslim community in the Lok Sabha elections in the state, especially from Bharuch. This time it was not possible as the seat went to the AAP.”
The Congress had offered to field a candidate from one seat in Gujarat, but the community members declined given a slim chance of victory, he claimed. “There is no scope for a Muslim candidate to contest from any other seat. Two seats – Ahmedabad West and Kutch – with sizable Muslim population are reserved for Scheduled Caste candidates,” Pathan said.
In the past, the Congress has fielded Muslim candidates from Navsari and Ahmedabad. In 1977, the Congress sent two Muslim candidates to Parliament – Ehsan Jafri from Ahmedabad and Ahmed Patel from Bharuch. Patel went on to win two subsequent elections in 1980 and 1984 from Bharuch. His son Faisal Patel and daughter Mumtaz Patel were among the contenders for the seat this time and had even expressed unhappiness after it went to the AAP which fielded tribal leader Chaitar Vasava.
Out of the 25 Lok Sabha seats in Gujarat where elections will be held, Gandhinagar has the highest number of eight Muslim candidates. While a majority of them are contesting as independents, some smaller parties such as the Right to Recall Party, Bharatiya Jan Nayak Party, Social Democratic Party, Garib Kalyan Party and Log Party have also fielded Muslim candidates from different seats.
Ismail Patel, the sarpanch of Sarod village in Bharuch’s Jambusar taluka who is contesting as an independent candidate from Bharuch Lok Sabha seat, said he tried for a ticket for the 2022 state assembly elections, but it was denied by the Congress. “Big political parties ignore Muslim leaders because of which we have to find a way out and contest the election as independent candidates. People in our area face a lot of issues but the local leaders do not come to their aid, because of which locals want a leader from their community,” he claimed.
A total of 266 candidates are in the fray for the May 7 elections in Gujarat, according to the final list of candidates published on April 22. Out of the 26 seats in Gujarat, Surat has gone to the BJP after its candidate Mukesh Dalal was last week declared elected unopposed.
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