Gujarat Muslims seek 14 Congress poll tickets

(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - According  to Vazirkhan Pathan, president of the minority cell of the Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee, Muslim law-makers had submitted to him a list of 14 assembly constituencies for the party tickets.There were 12 Muslim legislators in the 182-member state assembly in 1985 but their number has come down to five at present.Pathan attributes the situation to the state Congress’s policy of fielding fewer Muslim contestants and growth of communalism since 1980s which, he says, makes it difficult for Muslim candidates to win the elections.Senior Congress leader J V Momin said that there were several constituencies with substantial Muslim votes and Muslim candidates could sail through if the Congress leadership worked to transfer non-Muslim Congress votes to Muslim candidates. However, sources say the state leadership is reluctant to accept the demand for 14 tickets to Muslims because it fears that this could trigger polarisation that would benefit the BJP.GPCC president Arjun Modhwadia, however, told journalists that ‘winnability’ would be the sole criterion in allotment of tickets. As polls draw nearer, both the BJP and the Congress have been making efforts to woo Muslims./129