BJP bags Cong’s Kathlal seat,says Muslims at tipping point

With this win,the strength of the BJP in the 182-member state Assembly increased to 122. The main opposition Congress has 54 MLAs while others hold six seats.

Savouring the victory,Chief Minister Narendra Modi,who turned 61 today,fired a salvo at the Congress,saying “people have defeated every conspiracy of the Congress and CBI”.

“This is people’s support for development-oriented politics,” Modi told reporters in Gandhinagar shortly after his party’s win in the by-election necessitated due to the death of sitting Congress MLA Gautam Zala.

“Even the Congress and the CBI together could not defeat BJP in what was considered a Congress bastion,” Modi said,noting that the BJP has never won a seat from Kathlal.

Those indulging in secular BJP bags Cong’s Kathlal seat,says Muslims at tipping point vote-bank politics,he said,have been given a befitting reply by the people of Gujarat. “It has come from an area which is represented by two Central ministers. Clearly,people have rejected the Congress,” he said.

Kathlal is in central Gujarat’s Kheda district which is represented in Lok Sabha by Union Minister Dinsha Patel. The adjacent Anand parliamentary constituency is represented by another Union Minister Bharat Solanki.

In New Delhi,the BJP hailed the win as “a complete rejection of Congress-CBI alliance” by state voters.

“The Congress-CBI alliance and misuse of CBI in Gujarat has been completely rejected by the people of the state,” BJP spokesperson Nirmala Seetharaman told reporters in an apparent reference to the arrest of Modi’s close aide and former state Home Minister Amit Shah by CBI in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case. “

It is a slap on the face of Congress for trying all kinds of methods including misuse of CBI to gain politically in a state which they have been repeatedly rejected,” she said.

The victory is expected to be a big boost for the BJP ahead of elections to six municipal corporations scheduled to be held on October 10.

Meanwhile,Panjaj Desai,the BJP MLA from Nadiad who oversaw the bypoll,said his party has been able to win back Muslims and faxed statistics to media houses to back his claim. “Our minority cell has been able to change the one-sided image of Modiji. Now,Muslims are also impressed by his development work,” he said.

According to figures sent by Desai,there are 8,109 Muslim voters in the total electorate of 1,10078 voters. Going by polling in Muslim-dominated booths,Desai says it is evident that 65 % of them voted for BJP this time.

Former minister and BJP leader Bhupendra Chudasama too echoed Desai.

This is not the first time the state BJP has tried an image makeover exercise with Muslims. In Junagadh civic polls,it printed special booklets detailing Sachar Committee report saying how Muslims are doing well in the state. It even fielded Muslim candidates but the move backfired and Congress won.

In a similar attempt,the state government recently released ads featuring Gujarati Muslims. It ended in a faux pas with the ads featuring a photo of Muslim college girls in UP.