No Muslim candidate by Congress either, BSP only national party to field one in Gujarat

A majority of the Muslim candidates are contesting independently, while a few are from smaller parties like Bhartiya Jan Nayak Party that has a candidate from Kheda, Log Party (Navsari), Right to Recall Party (Kheda) and the Social Democratic Party of India (Patan and Navsari).

At seven, the highest number of Muslim candidates are contesting in Gandhinagar, from where Union Home Minister Amit Shah is the BJP candidate and Sonal Patel the Congress’s. This is followed by Bharuch and Patan, with four Muslim candidates each.

Muslims are estimated to be around 10% of Gujarat’s population. They are in sizeable numbers in at least 15 seats, which include Kutch, Jamnagar, Junagadh, Bharuch, Bhavnagar, Surendranagar, Patan, Banaskantha, Sabarkantha, Ahmedabad West, Ahmedabad East, Gandhinagar, Navsari, Panchmahals, and Anand.

In 2019, 2009 and 2004, the Congress had fielded a Muslim candidate each from Bharuch — once a stronghold of its late senior leader Ahmed Patel — with Sherkhan Pathan, Aziz Tankarvi and Mohammad Patel nominated, respectively. This time, the Aam Aadmi Party is contesting the Bharuch seat as the INDIA bloc representative, and the party has fielded its MLA Chaitar Vasava.

In 2014, the Congress fielded Jayesh Patel from Bharuch, but chose a Muslim candidate to take on the BJP’s C R Paatil in Navsari.

In the last two elections, the BJP swept the Gujarat Lok Sabha polls, winning all 26 seats. This time, there will be polling in only 25 seats, with Surat won uncontested by the BJP.

Imran Khedawala, a Congress leader and the only Muslim MLA in the current Gujarat Assembly, defends the party decision. “The decision (to go with Chaitar in Bharuch) was a wise one,” he says.

After its inception in 1957, the Bharuch Lok Sabha seat was a Congress bastion till 1984. Ahmed Patel, who won thrice between 1977 and 1984, was the last Congress MP from the seat. The BJP’s Chandubhai Deshmukh, who defeated him in 1989, was re-elected from the seat in subsequent elections until party colleague Mansukh Vasava replaced him in 1998. This year, Mansukh is fighting his seventh election from the constituency.

While Ahmed Patel’s children Faisal and Mumtaz had sought a ticket from Bharuch, Khedawala says: “They would not have been able to win, but Chaitar is a local, a sitting MLA and belongs to a community that has good numbers there. There are around three lakh Muslim votes in the constituency, but even if they all vote, still it is not enough. You cannot win with only Muslim votes. You have to get Hindu votes too.”

However, Zafar Sareshwala, former Chancellor of Maulana Azad National Urdu University and the owner of Islamic investment advisory services platform Parsoli Corporation concern about no national party fielding Muslims. He says he asks his community members too how they can continue to stay relevant if Muslims are not given tickets in elections. “By now, the community knows that our work is to give vote and not seek one,” says Sareshwala, who has earned his share of criticism for turning from a Modi critic to a supporter of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

At the same time, Sareshwala says, Muslims in Gujarat have a lot to be proud of. “After 2002, Muslims focused on three things — education, entrepreneurship and health. For instance, in Ahmedabad, where there were barely three-four Muslim-run schools, the number has gone up to 72… Similarly, the small businesses that were burnt to ashes in 2002 have multiplied 10-15 times,” says Sareshwala, who himself incurred huge losses in the aftermath of the Gujarat 2002 riots.

He says he also advises community members not to react to “provocations” such as the Citizenship (Amendment) Act or anti-Muslim statements, including top leaders.

Khedawala, however, regrets the apathy among youths for politics. Encouraging them to participate, he says: “The BJP has been in power for 30 years in Gujarat. We were three MLAs — Gyasuddin (Shaikh), Javed Peerzada and me — until 2022. But now I am the only one. I have to deal with all Muslim issues across the state.”