Journalism of Courage
THE dramatic withdrawal of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) candidate notwithstanding, the party probably did not stand much of a chance in Surat (East) seat. The candidate concerned, Kanchan Jariwala, had lost the municipal election he fought from a ward in this constituency in 2021 on a Congress ticket, with the BJP winning all the 15 ward seats.
The Surat (East) wards had stayed with the BJP at a time when AAP had won 27 seats in Patidar-dominated areas of Surat to displace the Congress as the main opposition party in the Surat Municipal Corporation.
In the 2017 Assembly polls too, AAP had not cut much in Surat (East). It was one of the 29 seats the party contested in the state at the time, and it ended up getting only 0.22% of the votes in Surat (East), behind even NOTA at 0.86%. The fight remained between the BJP and Congress.
While AAP has a dummy, fallback candidate in Salim Multani in Surat (East), as per rules, Multani cannot fight on the party mandate. AAP’s legal advisor, Advocate Arif Ansari, explained: “As per the legal provision, if Jariwala’s election form had been rejected, Salim Multani would have automatically become the official candidate of AAP. Now, (since the AAP candidate has himself withdrawn) Multani will contest as an Independent.”
Meanwhile, the Congress candidate from Surat (East), Aslam Cyclewala, has appealed to AAP leaders to support him now that its nominee has withdrawn.
In a Facebook post addressed to AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal, its Rajya Sabha MP and Gujarat-in charge Sandeep Pathak, state president Gopal Italia, AAP CM candidate Isudan Gadhvi and other AAP leaders, Cyclewala wrote that Jariwala had been forced to withdraw his nomination under the direct instructions of BJP state president C R Paatil. “If you want to finish such anti-social elements in democracy, and from society, support me openly in the Surat East 159 Assembly seat,” Cyclewala, a former municipal corporator, wrote.
Surat City BJP spokesperson Jagdish Patel said, “Now there would be a direct fight between the BJP and Congress and we are sure of our victory. AAP presence in the election does not make any difference to us.”
There is one change though from 2017, when there were 14 candidates in the race and the BJP’s Arvind Rana had defeated the Congress’s Nitin Bharucha by 13,347 votes (with the others drawing hardly any support). This time, with the Congress nominating a Muslim, the party stands a fair chance if the votes are polarised. Even in this though, there is a twist: Of the 17 other candidates besides the BJP’s and the Congress’s in the fray, 14 are Muslims.
Of its nearly 2.12 lakh population, Surat (East) has 92,000 Muslims, followed by 40,000 Ranas and 20,000 Khatris, apart from Jains and others. Jariwala is a Khatri, like Bharucha, who lost in 2017.
The Surat (East) seat has been won by a Rana community candidate since 2007.
Jariwala, a resident of Gopipura area in Surat city, runs a business selling stainless steel kitchen cabinets, while his wife runs a zariwork unit from home.
Before trying his luck from the Gopipura ward last year, Jariwala had contested from Navapura ward on a JD(U) ticket in 2000, and lost. He had joined AAP after his second successive loss in 2021.
