37 Muslim Independents in two Surat seats: Garment worker to domestic help to auto driver to delivery boy | Political Pulse News,The Indian Express
While 30 Muslim Independents are contesting Limbayat seat out of a total of 44 candidates, highest in Gujarat polls first phase, 7 Muslim Independents are in Surat East fray
Shaikh’s name figures among a list of 30 Muslim candidates contesting as Independents from Surat’s Limbayat constituency which will go the polls in the first phase of the Gujarat Assembly polls on December 1.
“Mai toh cutting ka kaam karta hoon idhar, dihadi hai mera. Kisine bataya toh maine bhar diya (I am engaged in cutting in a garments unit. Someone told me to fill up forms which I did. I was not aware that I was being made a candidate),” Shaikh claims.
The Limbayat Assembly seat is part of the Navsari Lok Sabha constituency represented by Gujarat BJP president CR Paatil, from where a total of 44 candidates are contesting — the highest among the state’s 89 seats in the first phase — that include altogether 34 Independents. The Muslim community makes up about 30 per cent of voters in Limbayat.
In the neighbouring Surat East Assembly constituency, which is also scheduled for voting on December 1, Minhaj Patel, a delivery boy with a private online food and grocery store, is among seven Muslim faces out of 8 Independents in the fray. “I work with Big Basket company. I felt like contesting, so I filed nomination this time,” he said. A total of 14 candidates are contesting the Surat East seat.
The Congress, which has fielded a Muslim candidate in Surat East, has charged that the ruling BJP has fielded “dubious Independent candidates” in the two seats to split minority votes. Recently, the Surat East seat had hit the headlines when Kanchan Jariwala, who was fielded by the AAP, withdrew his candidature amid a row and exchange of allegations and counter-allegations between the AAP and the BJP.
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