The Muslim vote

THE Congress campaign proactively stayed away from minorities, riots, and, in particular, Godhra. The partys campaigners did not utter a word about the fact that Amit Shah, the former Home Minister and alleged mastermind of fake encounter killings, had been given the party ticket by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Instead, the Congress speeches focussed on farmers issues, housing for the poor, fuel subsidies, water for drinking and irrigation, pension plans and other issues that drew roars of approval on the campaign trail.

Oddly enough, it was Chief Minister Narendra Modi who played safe (albeit briefly) when he wooed Muslims in the initial stages of the campaign. He used a new BJP member and former Youth Congress worker named Asifa Khan as his poster girl to announce that she was Muslim but a fan of his. Obviously, there was no real change of heart on Modis partit was just another tactic that arose out of need. Post-delimitation, there are over 40 seats in just the Ahmedabad area that have a strong Muslim presence. He also wore pale green as a concession to the Muslim votersanother tactic of his Sadbhavana mission undertaken in 2011 to woo minorities. But closer to the date of the elections, all pretence was droppedsaffron kurtas and scarves were back and the BJP candidate list had not one Muslim name on it.

The return of his arrogance was clearly seen when he brought Amit Shah back into the electoral fray. It was initially thought that this might negatively affect the BJP because of Shahs alleged involvement in the Sohrabuddin and Tulsi Prajapati encounter murders. But Modi gave him a safe seat in the Naranpura area of Ahmedabad. Shah won by an easy margin of 63,335 votes over his Congress rival.

One hope for the Muslim vote was the newly created constituency of Jamalpur-Khadia. This seat in Ahmedabad West has a 60 per cent concentration of Muslims. The Congress candidate, Samirkhan Sipai, should have had an easy win against the BJPs Ashok Bhatt, but the final tally had Bhatt winning by 6,331 votes. A rebel independent candidate, Sabir Kabliwala, who had been denied the Congress ticket, polled 30,513 votes. Clearly, the BJP candidate won only because the Muslim votes were divided between the two Muslim candidates.

Lyla Bavadam