BJP's experiment with 'Sadbhavana' fails in local body elections, except in Una

AHMEDABAD: The ruling BJP's experiment with `Sadbhavana' propounded by the then chief minister Narendra Modi in the local body elections has failed, except in Una municipality in coastal Saurastra. Here, all 10 candidates from the Muslim community won seats for the BJP . BJP had a landslide victory in Una municipality , winning 35 seats of 36. Of the nearly 500 Muslim BJP candidates fielded in these elections, the number elected is in two digits. Saurashtra is the only region where civic bodies showed some `sadbhavana' where the minority community elected saffron Muslim candidates.

Apart from 10 Muslim councillors in Una municipality, one Muslim candidate, Sufiya Zaheed Dal, secured a corporator's seat for the party in the Rajkot Municipal Corporation (RMC). Dal was one of two Muslim candidates fielded by BJP in the RMC. During the last civic elections in Rajkot, Bibben Sama won on a BJP ticket.

In Ahmedabad, the minority community and electorates from other communities remained indifferent to BJP's Muslim candidates. All four Muslim candidates fielded in Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation ( AMC) have lost, in three different constituencies where Muslim voters are in overwhelming numbers - Jamalpur, Behrampura and Maktampura, which falls in the city's largest Muslim ghetto of Juhapura.