Author: Abhishek Kapoor
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: November 05, 2005
URL: http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=81406
In a House of 42, BJP has 19; 18 Muslim independents
next largest group & they don't want to go with Cong
This is as real as realpolitik can get. In
Godhra, synonymous now with the Sabarmati Express carnage and the riots that
engulfed Gujarat in its wake, the municipality is going to be governed by
the BJP with support from all the 18 elected Muslims.
''Even if they say they don't want our support,
we will go and sit in the BJP's lap rather than oppose them,'' says a Muslim
leader who is leading this initiative. He did not wish to be named.
When the results for the October 25 municipal elections were out, the BJP
emerged as the biggest group. Of the 42 seats, it won 19, but that does not
give it a clear majority.
The second-largest group is of 18 Muslims
who had stood as independents. The community, which has generally been allied
with the Congress, decided not to have any truck with that party this time.
The remaining five councillors, all Hindus,
are known to be allied with the Congress. But they, too, had stood as independents.
There was no official Congress candidate.
''Even if the BJP spurns us initially, we
will somehow negotiate for a power-sharing arrangement,'' says Rafiq Alam
of the Muslim group.
Alam was the standing-committee chairman in
the previous regime, in which a group of 17 Muslim independents had governed
the municipality with support from the Congress. In that council, the BJP,
with 12 councillors, had sat in opposition.
''Let the arrangement prove a model of communal
peace and cooperation,'' said another leader.