Congress’s Khedawala is Gujarat’s lone Muslim MLA

AHMEDABAD: Congress’s Imran Khedawala will be the lone Muslim MLA in the 15th Gujarat assembly, as the state’s electorate voted just a single representative from the 230 minority community candidates who ran for office in 73 seats.
Congress had fielded six Muslim candidates, including three sitting MLAs, in the just-concluded elections. Khedawala retained the Jamalpur-Khadia constituency in Ahmedabad city for a second consecutive term, upstaging the challenge from BJP and AIMIM.
The other two Congress legislators lost — Gyasuddin Shaikh in Dariapur and Mohammed Javed Pirzada in Wankaner.In Jamalpur-Khadia, a seat where minority voters make up 61% of the electorate, Khedawala polled 58,235 votes and won by a margin of 13,658 against BJP’s Bhushan Bhatt (44,649) and AIMIM’s Sabir Kabliwala (15,655). When the constituency was first carved out in 2012, Khedawala had contested as an independent and spoiled Congress’ chance as his Chhipa community rallied behind him. There are over 30,000 voters from the community and they stood by Khedawala this time too.