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Six-time Godhra MLA and former Gujarat Cabinet minister Chandrasinh Raulji, popularly known as CK Raulji, shifted from the Congress to the BJP in August 2017 ahead of the Assembly elections, bringing the constituency back into the BJP fold after a decade. Under him, the party also managed to gain control of the area’s civic body last year.
Raulji was a part of the Godhra Jail Advisory Committee (JAC) that granted remission to 11 life-term convicts in the Bilkis Bano case in August and was at the centre of controversy when he referred to the released convicts as “Brahmins with good sanskar”. The only remission petition to be placed before the JAC for review, it is now under challenge before the Supreme Court.
Asked if the decision to release convicts charged for gang rape and massacre could send out the wrong message to society and other rape-accused serving similar sentences of imprisonment, Raulji said at the time, “That is right and possible, but none of the committee members felt so. We have only taken a decision as per the process and guidelines of the state government. We did not see which caste or creed the convicts belong to. None of the convicts are known to any member of the committee.”
He added, “It was a very practical discussion on the application which was before us. What happened back then was in the heat of a communal riot. They are not hardened criminals.”
Raulji enjoyed the support of the 22 per cent Muslim voters in his constituency but his role in the JAC and subsequent remarks are likely to further alienate the community. The seat also has a sizeable Other Backward Classes (OBC) vote bank that Raulji has not been able to tap owing to his position as a Kshatriya leader.
A senior BJP leader from Gujarat said, “It is true that Raulji’s influence on some of the minority pockets has dented. But the BJP won the seat in 2017. We rely strongly on the strength of the party. There is no denying that his overall prominence in Godhra will still benefit the party, not just as the candidate but as a leader.”
A close aide of former Gujarat Chief Minister Shankersinh Vaghela, Raulji began his political career in the Janata Dal, winning the 1990 Assembly polls from Godhra. He joined the BJP in 1991 and won the Assembly bypoll from the seat that year. He also won the seat on a BJP ticket in 1995. Raulji followed Vaghela when he floated the Rashtriya Janata Party (RJP) that year.
In 2002, the BJP won the seat in the aftermath of the riots. With the RJP subsequently merging with the Congress, Raulji went on to win the 2007 and 2012 Assembly polls on a Congress ticket. He has thrice been a Cabinet Minister.
Although Raulji’s aides are confident that he will win a seventh term, senior party leaders refused to comment on the matter. “The tickets will be decided later. As per the party’s criteria for repeating candidates, it is likely that Godhra will see a fresh face. But, it is in the hands of the parliamentary committee,” said a BJP functionary.
Considered to wield major influence, Raulji is credited to have turned the tables on the Congress-AIMIM and Independent candidate alliance in the municipal elections of February 2021. The AIMIM bagged seven seats in the 44-seat Godhra civic body. The BJP and Independents won 18 seats each. Although the Asaduddin Owaisi-led party initially formed a board with the help of Independents and the Congress, which got a single seat, the situation changed by July when the BJP returned to power with the help of two Independent candidates, including the municipality president.
