Jamalpur-Khadia: An assembly constituency where Muslims make up 60 per cent of the population, Jamalpur-Khadia has remained a Congress ‘citadel’, barring once in 2012 when the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won this seat due to ‘division of Muslim votes’.
The BJP, the Congress alleges, is trying a similar ploy this time in many Muslim-dominated seats in and around Ahmedabad where a large number of Muslim ‘Independents’ are contesting the assembly polls, besides candidates fielded by the Congress, the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).
On paper, the electoral logic is sound: with every Muslim vote cast for these Independents, the BJP stands to benefit.
Imran Khedawala, the sitting MLA and Congress candidate from Jamalpur-Khadia, told The Print: “Jamalpur is a Muslim majority seat. Hindus constitute 40 per cent of the total vote share, while the rest is Muslims. It has been a Congress gadh (citadel) since 1947. We lost the seat once in 2012. A Muslim candidate fought election as an Independent and the votes were divided. So, the BJP won.”
The Independent, Sabir Kabliwala, is contesting this time on an AIMIM ticket, Khedawala said. Adding, “But our Muslim brothers are wiser than last time. They know how these parties and Independent candidates help BJP’s agenda.”
The Congress termed this pattern across Muslim-dominated seats in Gujarat as an ‘engineered’ ploy to divide Muslim votes. The BJP has fielded Muslim candidates as Independents to divide the Muslims votes, said Congress’s national spokesperson Alok Sharma. “It is a trick that BJP routinely plays across the state to divide the Muslim vote,” he alleged.
Asked whether there was any truth to these theories, the ruling BJP claimed prior outcomes on these seats were a result of the Congress’s inability to hold on to its vote bank.
Bhushan Ashok Bhatt, former MLA and BJP candidate from Jamalpur, said, “Does Congress want to say that Muslims are now listening to BJP and becoming candidates to damage their vote bank? The AAP, AIMIM and Independent candidates are not kids. Why would they listen to us?”
“Congress has already conceded defeat and that is why they are making such imaginary and outrageous claims. Muslims will vote for Modi ji because they can live here peacefully and flourish. The state government never had a biassed attitude towards Muslims. I can’t vouch for the illiterate ones, but literate and educated Muslims are with Modi ji,” he told ThePrint.
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Muslim candidates galore
In Jamalpur-Khadia, five of the eight candidates in the fray are Muslims. In 2017, when Congress secured 58 per cent of the total votes polled on this seat and the BJP was a distant second with 35 per cent, eight of the 10 candidates were Muslims.
This time around, a similar pattern can be seen in seats like Dariapur, Danilimda and Bapunagar where Congress has sitting MLAs. In Dariapur, with a 46 per cent Muslim population, five of the seven candidates are Muslims. Similarly, 10 of the 29 candidates are Muslims in Bapunagar where the community makes up 28 per cent of the population.
This trend, however, is not specific to Ahmedabad district. In Godhra, a communally sensitive seat in Panchmahals district, five of the 10 candidates contesting this time are Muslims — four Independents and one candidate fielded by the new entrant AIMIM.
According to Gujarat Congress vice president Pankaj Patel, “This is a trick that BJP has adopted to confuse Muslims, as they are seen as Congress’s captive vote bank. Even as the Muslim community will never vote for the Independents generally, they may get a few hundred or thousand votes but in the process, the vote share can witness a dent. This is their (BJP’s) plan. But we are expecting Muslims to exercise their franchise wisely.”
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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