Lok Sabha Election 2019: For 30 years, no Muslim MP from Gujarat in Lok Sabha


Lok Sabha Election 2019: For 30 years, no 

Muslim MP from Gujarat in Lok Sabha

                   The last Muslim to make it to the Lok Sabha from Gujarat was Congress’s Ahmed Patel in 1984. In 1989, Patel lost the Bharuch seat to BJP’s Chandu Deshmukh by 1.15 lakh votes. Ever since, no Muslim has made it to the Lok Sabha from Gujarat. Muslims make up 9.5% of the state’s population. In 1962, when the newly-formed Gujarat voted in its first Lok Sabha elections, only one Muslim candidate won, Johara Chavda, from Banaskantha. In 1977, the state elected two Muslims, both from the Congress Ahmed Patel from Bharuch and Ehsan Jafri from Ahmedabad the greatest representation Muslims have seen from Gujarat ever. The Bharuch Lok Sabha seat has the highest concentration of Muslim voters in Gujarat. Currently, of the 15.64 lakh voters in Bharuch, 22.2% are Muslims. Since 1962, eight Muslim candidates have been fielded by a national party in Bharuch, all from the Congress, but only Ahmed Patel was able to win. He won three straight Lok Sabha elections from Bharuch, in 1977, 1982 and 1984.

                   
 "Muslims are not only socially but also politically marginalized in Gujarat. This was amplified after the 2002 riots," says Kiran Desai, a social scientist at the Centre for Social Studies (CSS). Desai was part of the team that worked on a report for CSS after the 1992 riots. Since 1989, just seven Muslim candidates have been fielded in the Lok Sabha elections in Gujarat by a national party, all by the Congress. In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, of the total 334 candidates in the fray in Gujarat, 67 (or 19.76%) were Muslims. That year the Congress fielded just one Muslim candidate, Maksud Mirza, from Navsari. All the other 66 Muslim candidates fought as independents or for parties such as the Samajwadi Party (SP). In the 2014 elections, most Muslims in the fray contested from the Panchamahal, Kheda, Anand, Bharuch, Navsari, Sabarkantha, Jamnagar and Junagadh seats. In 2009, Kaleem Abdul Latif Sheikh, a Lok Janshakti Party candidate (LJP) in Panchmahal led to the defeat of Congress candidate Shankersinh Vaghela. Latif polled 23,615 votes while Vaghela lost by a mere 2,081 votes. The winner was the BJP’s Prabhatsinh Chauhan. BJP spokesman Bharat Pandya, said, "Our party considers winnability, representation from the local party cadre and the candidates own following in the area before allotting a ticket." Congress spokesman Manish Doshi said, "Our party has three Muslim mlas in the state assembly. Earlier too we have given Muslims tickets for Lok Sabha elections in Gujarat, but they did not win."

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