Vajirkhan Pathan, president of the minority unit of the Congress party in Gujarat, said the party has traditionally fielded at least one candidate from the Muslim community, especially from Baruch, in the Lok Sabha elections in the state people. (Picture: Representative)
This time, 35 Muslim candidates are contesting the Lok Sabha polls for 25 of the 26 seats in Gujarat, compared with 43 nominees from the community in 2019, according to Election Commission data
Thirty-five Muslim candidates are contesting the Lok Sabha polls in Gujarat, but this time the Congress has broken with tradition and not fielded any candidate from the community in the state.
The Congress party argued that the Bharuch Lok Sabha seat, which has traditionally fielded Muslim candidates, has gone to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) this time as part of a seat-sharing agreement among opposition Indian bloc voters.
Among national parties, only the Samajwadi Party (BSP) has fielded a Muslim candidate from Gandhinagar for the May 7 polls in the state. The BSP also fielded a Muslim candidate in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls in Panchmahal.
This time, 35 Muslim candidates are contesting the Lok Sabha polls for 25 of the 26 seats in Gujarat, compared with 43 nominees from the community in 2019, according to Election Commission data. Most candidates in the community either run independently or are fielded by lesser-known parties.
Vajirkhan Pathan, president of the minority unit of the Congress party in Gujarat, told PTI, “The party has traditionally fielded at least one candidate from the Muslim community, especially from Baruch, in the Lok Sabha elections in the state. That is not possible this time. because the seat went to AAP. He claimed that the Congress had offered to field a candidate from one seat in Gujarat but community members rejected it given the slim chance of winning. “There was no scope for a Muslim candidate to field any other. contest for seats. Pathan said two seats – Ahmedabad West and Kutch – which have large Muslim populations are reserved for Scheduled Caste candidates.
Apart from Baruch, the Congress party used to field Muslim candidates from Navsari and Ahmedabad (then not divided into East and West Ahmedabad seats). The Congress party has fielded two Muslim candidates in Parliament – Ehsan Jafri from Ahmedabad and Ahmed Patel from Bharuch.
Patel subsequently won two elections from Baruch in 1980 and 1984. Contenders for the second seat even expressed dissatisfaction after the seat fell to tribal leader Chaitar Vasava’s AAP.
In the past, the Congress party fielded Mohammad Patel, Aziz Tankawi and Sherhan Pathan from Baruch in the Lok Sabha elections in 2004, 2009 and 2019 respectively. In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the party fielded its only Muslim candidate Maksud Mirza from the Navsari seat. Mayawati-led Socialist Party of the Philippines has this time offered Mohammad Anies Desai a ticket to contest from Gandhinagar, where he will face off against BJP heavyweight and Union Home Minister Amit Shah Competition.
Of the 25 Lok Sabha seats to be contested in Gujarat, Gandhinagar has the highest number of eight Muslim candidates. According to the Election Commission, there are five Muslim candidates each in Jamnagar and Navsari, four each in Patan and Bharuch, two each in Porbandar and Kheda, and Ahmedabad One each from East, Banaskantha, Junagadh, Panchmal and Sabarkantha.
While most of them are contesting as independents, some smaller parties such as the Recall Party, the Hindu Janayak Party, the Social Democratic Party, the Garibukayan Party and the Diary Party have also fielded Muslims from various seats candidate. Ismail Patel, the village chief of Sarod village in Jambusar taluka of Bharuch, who is contesting from Bharuch Lok Sabha seat as an independent candidate, said he had tried to win the state election in 2022 ticket for the assembly elections but was rejected by the Congress party.
“The big political parties ignore Muslim leaders, so we have to find a way out and contest the elections as independent candidates. People in our area are facing a lot of problems but local leaders are not helping, so the locals want a leader in the community,” he claimed. According to the final list of candidates released on April 22, a total of 266 candidates are contesting in the May 7 elections in Gujarat.
Of the 26 seats in Gujarat, Surat was elected to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) after its candidate Mukesh Dalal declared unopposed last week.
Check out the 2024 Lok Sabha election third phase schedule, main candidates and constituencies: news18 website.
(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a Yonhap news agency feed – PTI)
