The Naroda Assembly constituency in Ahmedabad has been a BJP bastion for over three decades and was back in the spotlight last week after the ruling party fielded the daughter of a convict in the Naroda Patiya riot case. In the Naroda Patiya neighbourhood, 97 people were killed by a rioting mob on February 28, 2002. The locality and the adjoining Naroda Gam form the constituency. In Naroda, 108 persons, most of them Muslims, were killed during the communal violence. The trial is on in the Naroda Gam case in which 11 people were killed, and among the accused is former state minister Maya Kodnani, who was the Naroda MLA in 2002. She stands acquitted in the Naroda Patiya case, which has been described as “the largest single case of mass murder” during the riots. The violence erupted following the burning of the S-6 coach of the Sabarmati Express in Godhra a day earlier, killing 59 people, mostly kar sevaks returning from Ayodhya. For many voters in the area, including those from the minority community, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is the choice against BJP candidate Payal Kukrani, an anaesthetist whose father Manoj Kukrani was among the 32 people convicted in the Naroda Patiya case by a special court in Ahmedabad in 2012. He is now out on bail. AAP has fielded Omprakash Tiwari, a migrant from Varanasi and the party’s appeal lies in its message of welfare politics. Fifty-year-old Salma Bano is among the few who stayed back in Naroda Patiya after the riots. Outside her scrap shop, she says, “We have been voting for the Congress but the BJP always comes to power. This time, I am not sure who we will vote for, but prices are going up. We need someone to address that, and AAP is doing it. We may vote for them. There is no use talking about that (riots) now. We have always been scared in this area and even now we are scared.” The Indian Express also met some women at Hussainnagar, one of the neighbourhoods that bore the brunt of the 2002 violence. One of them said, “We will vote for the AAP this time. They are promising free electricity, good schools, and medical treatment for us. We want that, we will give them a chance. Earlier, we voted for the Congress, especially in the last Assembly elections. But, as always, the BJP came into power. But we will still vote for a better future.” The BJP has won Naroda since 1990 and has also represented the Naroda Patiya ward, one of the three in the constituency along with Kubernagar and Sardarnagar, for more than three decades. A 55-year-old home guard jawan in Hussainagar who says he was a year old when he came to Ahmedabad with his father and shifted to Patiya 31 years ago says, “I lost my mother in the violence there. That does not mean that I would leave everything and run away, or resort to violence. We still have to take care of food, shelter, electricity bills, water supply, education and so on. I am on duty on days of polling, so my vote is taken separately on a ballot paper. It becomes difficult to vote as per your choice.” Naroda goes to the polls in the second phase on December 5. Asked about the release of the convicts in the Bilkis Bano case and the Kheda flogging incidents, the jawan says, “I understand that probably the new party (AAP) is silent on this. It should ideally speak on these issues, but I think they are looking at the future . Both the riots in 1969 and 2002, happened because the BJP was either not in power (in 1969) or about to lose its hold (two decades ago). So, we will definitely vote for the AAP, or some may go for the Congress. But we want the BJP to be in power in the state for the sake of our safety.” AAP’s Omprakash Tiwari was earlier with the Congress. He runs his campaign out of the party office, which is an extension of his home in the Subhash Nagar locality. Tiwari says he was 14 years old when he arrived in Ahmedabad from Varanasi along with his father. “My father was a Chemistry graduate and after working here, which was a rural area at the time, went to work for a rubber factory in Malaysia. The rest of our family, my mother and siblings, stayed here. I completed my education in Ahmedabad," says Tiwari, who is a former high school teacher and runs three schools in the area. Asked about the 2002 riots, he says, “All that is a thing of the past. People need development, good schools, hospitals, business and other facilities. Many schools were also burnt in those riots. So guarantees offered by Kejriwal on the issues are also the issues of the area. People of the constituency have voted for Modi on communal lines, but now they want development.” Tiwari joined the Congress in 1987 and actively participated in politics 2008 onwards. He won the corporation elections in 2010, his poll debut, and 2015. “After 38 years, I helped the Congress win the Corporation elections from the ward, removing the BJP. In 2017, I fought the Assembly elections but lost by a narrow margin.” This July, he moved to the Kejriwal-led party. Some residents of the Sindhi-dominated Kuber Nagar, which lies on the other side of the Naroda Patiya circle and across a railway line, also believe that the AAP stands a chance in the election. Vasudev Navlani, a 66-year-old garment hawker, says, “This time, there is a 90 per cent chance of the AAP coming to power, though we prefer the BJP's rule in the area; they ensure peace. We really value and appreciate Tiwari's work. This time, the vote might go to the AAP because of him. The AAP's guarantees too are worth voting for, they have worked well in Delhi and Punjab.” Dhanraj Murjhani, 62, is another Kubernagar resident. He also feels that the AAP seems promising. “If they (the BJP) change the candidate, we will consider the party," he adds. Asked about the BJP candidate’s father, Murjhani says, “We know her father Manoj Kukrani. He was convicted in the 2002 riots cases, and so were many of us. I, too, have been facing old charges. Three cases are going on against me. We were simply picked from the neighbourhood, as we were seen in some photos of the riots.”
