Vote for…? Riot-hit Naroda has fallen off election map

‘‘Kya election? Kuch nazar aa raha hai?’’ says Zubeda Munavar Shaikh, a resident. ‘‘Congress candidate Raj Kumar Gupta passed through the main road but it was over in no time. He was here for such a short time that most of us didn’t even know about it. And as for Harin Pathak, we have not got even a glimpse of him,’’ adds Bashir Ahmed Abdul Mansuri.

Residents say they were ready to ‘‘forgive and forget’’ and had asked Rematullah Khaja Hussain, a resident and long-time member of the BJP, to ask his party’s city unit president Maya Kodnani to come down to the area. ‘‘We have to be practical. Someone will have to take the initiative and bridge the gap. But none of the senior BJP leaders seem to be interested,’’ said Bashir. ‘‘Pani mein rehkar magarmach ki dushmani acchhi nahi’’.

While Hussain claims he had passed on the message to the BJP leader, Kodnani denies receiving it. ‘‘Harin Pathak passed through the area during a rally, in which even I had participated. However, it is a large area and not all parts can be covered personally,’’ she said. Meanwhile, Gupta says he ‘‘did not have time’’ to meet the people.

Residents say ‘bijli-sadak-pani’ are the main issues here. Zebunissa Usmanbhai Nagori says it’s too much to ask for security; they’d rather be practical and put up more mundane demands. ‘‘During the riots, the common toilets were damaged and even today, they don’t have doors. The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation started laying the road here last year but it abruptly came to a halt as funds ran out. Do only highways qualify as sadaks? Are issues here too trivial to merit even consideration?’’ she says.

However, for Nadir Hussain Abdul Hamid Imandar, who runs a pan stall and for many of his friends, security remains an issue. ‘‘We don’t want to live where we are always on the lookout for routes to escape if riots broke out again. BJP ko ek baar vote diya to unhone yahan kabristan banaya. Dusri baar ye galti hogi to shayad hamen woh Pakistan ravana karenge,’’ says Imandar.

Unemployment is also a major issue here. Allahuddin Mohammad Hussain Ansari, a member of the Islamic Relief Committee, said of the 5,000-odd residents in these chalis, more than 25 per cent are unemployed.