Gujarat, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home State and a BJP citadel for long, has not had a Muslim Lok Sabha MP since senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel won from Bharuch in the 1984 polls. Muslims form around nine per cent of the State’s population, and are traditionally seen as Congress supporters.
Congressman Patel won from Bharuch defeating Chandubhai Deshmukh in 1984. He lost to Deshmukh in 1989. Patel, a Rajya Sabha MP now, had won from the seat in the 1977 and 1980 general elections as well. A Hindutva surge following BJP patriarch LK Advani’s Rath Yatra from Somnath in the state to Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh in 1990 has made the state a saffron citadel, leading to Muslim candidates drawing a blank at the Lok Sabha hustings, observers said.
While the Congress has fielded Muslim candidates, at least one, in every LS poll, the ruling BJP is yet to do so. “In Gujarat, unfortunately, we have a clear communal divide which the political leadership has created with a definite vision. The purpose is political gains,” political analyst Dr Hari Desai said. “Earlier, seats like Banaskantha and even Bharuch, where Hindus are in a majority, have had Muslim MPs. But after the 1990 rath yatra, which started from Somnath in Gujarat, it seems impossible for a Muslim candidate to win due to polarisation,” Desai added.