Gujarat Poll Watch 2022 Series

Japan K Pathak

When Gujarat Congress President Jagdish Thakor recently spoke about the attacks on Ram Navami processions in Khambhat and Himmatnagar, he put blame on the side of Hindu participants. Thakor claimed religious flag of others are replaced, slogans are chanted, provocation is orchestrated when processions are near Masjid or Durgah. He said – ‘On auspicious day of Ram Navami, we go out, we take Ram’s name and if there’s Masjid and Durgah on route and if on some power pole if we replace their religious flag by putting ours, if we chant slogans against them and provoke, then there are riots …..’ Thakor and Gujarat Congress incharge Raghu Sharma in veiled manner also alleged ruling Bharatiya Janata Party government was orchestrating violence in connection with upcoming State assembly general elections that are likely to be held in December this year.

On recent attacks on Ram Navami processions, Gujarat Congress puts blames on the side of Hindu participants. State party chief Jagdish Thakor claims religious flag of others are replaced, slogans are chanted, provocation is orchestrated when processions are near Masjid or Durgah pic.twitter.com/1W7dGsO1CY

— DeshGujarat (@DeshGujarat) April 13, 2022

Thakor didn’t utter a word about Jihadi elements who burnt vehicles of Ram Navami procession in Himmatnagar. Thakor or Sharma didn’t utter a word against those who killed a Hindu participant in Ram Navami procession, Kanaiyalal Rana (62). When a Hindu youth was killed early this year in Dhandhuka because he posted something unacceptable to a few radicalized Muslims, Thakor had given similar statement. He had said that as election comes near, more such incidents will take place. Thakor even then didn’t utter a word against radicalization of Muslim youths, which emerged as the core motive in Dhandhuka murder case.

Why Congress in Gujarat stays away from even slightly criticizing the perpetrators but keep lambasting the victims or the elections?

The answer perhaps lies in some recent election results in Gujarat. Last year in a single season, 81 municipalities of Gujarat went to polls. On the counting day, Congress emerged winner in only two municipalities, that were Maliya Miyana and Sikka. I remember, I had to go to the news channel to discuss the results, and I was wondering how these two particular municipalities threw different results and elected Congress! When inquired with local sources, I was simply told that I should check the names of successful Congress candidates.

And so I did it. In Sikka, Congress won 15 of 25 seats. 13 out of 15 winning candidates were Muslims. In Maliya Miyana, 23 out of 24 winning candidates of Congress were Muslims. The conclusion was simple. Wherever Muslims were in decisive numbers overwhelmingly, Congress emerged victorious. In the rest of the municipalities, Congress couldn’t win.

If we look at the list of winning candidates of Congress in other municipalities, the number of Muslims is overwhelming and dominating. Be it Bharuch or Dahegam or Keshod or Bhuj or Surendranagar or Chotila or Salaya, Jambusar, Ankleshwar, Dahegam, Mundra, Porbandar, Godhra, Himmatnagar, Vadali, Bardoli, Dhrangadhra, Botad, Patan, Veraval, Dholka and Khambhat …. you find mostly Muslims in the list of successful Congress candidates. The more you go through the list of winning candidates of the Congress party, more you realize that most of Congress winners were Muslims or from Muslims populated areas.

There were Municipal Corporation elections too last year. If you look at the detailed results – suppose if we take Amdavad Municipal Corporation (AMC) as a sample, the Congress party had 24 winning candidates, of whom 12 were Muslims. If we count the number of councilors elected from Muslims populated areas including Hindus and Muslims, then the number will go even further up. Worth noting that in case of reserved seats, Congress would have to field Schedule Caste Hindu candidates even in Muslims populated wards. Take an example of Jamnagar also. Out of a total of 11 Congress councilors elected in the Municipal Corporation, 7 were Muslims. Or take the 2019 regular election of Junagadh Municipal Corporation. All BJP candidates won barring only five. Three of them were Muslims and four from Muslim populated ward (all NCP candidates).

The year 2021 further witnessed municipality polls of Okha, Thara, Bhanvad and Vapi. While BJP won Okha, Thara and Vapi with overwhelming support of voters, Congress won Bhanvad. If we put Bhanvad results under the magnifying lens and read the names of the candidates, we can conclude that if Muslims voters were not the factor, BJP could win this municipality too. Election of four Muslim candidates of Congress gave edge to Congress in Bhanvad.

Last year, BJP won all district panchayats, most of taluka panchayats, all assembly seat by-polls. If you go into the details of the results of local polls and Panchayat polls, at many many places, Congress victories were solely from Muslims populated areas. At the same time, Aam Admi Party (AAP), Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), and Owaisi led AIMIM also snatched significant number of Muslim votes from Congress in these elections. In this context, it clearly appears that Congress doesn’t want to even remotely take any stand that may upset its only loyal and speedily escaping Muslim vote bank.

Even nationally if you observe, when Rahul Gandhi had smelled his defeat in Amethi Lok Sabha seat in 2019 Lok Sabha elections, he chose Wayanad as his second seat, far away in Kerala. Wayanad has Hindu voters in minority. Muslims and Christian voters enjoy dominating number there.

So be it nationally or domestically, Congress if takes particular line over Khambhat and Himmatnagar types of incidents of communal violence, there’s nothing surprising.