BJP's new faces in Ahmedabad include daughter of Naroda Patia massacre convictThe party replaced sitting MLA Balram Thawani by bringing Payal Kukrani
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In the city, BJP repeated only chief minister Bhupendra Patel from Ghatlodia and Jagdish Vishwakarma from Nikol seat. Credit: AFP Photo
In 16 Assembly seats in Ahmedabad city, the BJP has fielded 14 new faces, including 30-year-old anesthetist Payal Kukrani from Naroda seat. She is the daughter of Manoj Kukrani alias Sindhi, one of the 32 convicts in Naroda Patia massacre case in which 97 Muslims were killed, the worst case of 2002 post Godhra riots.
In 2018, a division bench of Gujarat High Court acquitted 17 of the convicts including former BJP minister Maya Kodnani, while confirming the conviction of 15 others including Manoj Kukrani, Babubhai Patel alias Babu Bajrangi, among others. The convicts challenged the order in the Supreme Court where the matter is pending. They are all out on bail including Kukrani.
During the riots, Kodnani was an MLA from Naroda, a constituency dominated by Sindhi community. She represented the seat for three terms. Her third term ended after her arrest in 2009 and subsequent conviction in 2012, before getting acquitted in 2018. Sources said that she was expecting to get tickets. BJP has retained this seat for nearly three decades.
The party replaced sitting MLA Balram Thawani by bringing Payal, one of the four women candidates figured in the list of 160 candidates BJP released on Thursday. Her inclusion is said to have angered community leaders over several issues, but primarily over her marriage outside the community.
"Since she married a Dalit, she is not being seen as a true Sindhi. She is using her father's name instead of her husband. Workers and community leaders are not happy with this decision," a BJP worker active in the area told DH. He said that her father's background is an "advantage", but her marriage outside the community may not go down well for her.
"We are living in the 21st century and people are still talking about caste. It doesn't matter and shouldn't...My husband, Anil Chauhan, is also a doctor. We have studied medicine together and our caste never mattered. It's only now that people have started talking about it. I don't want to make further comments," Payal told DH when contacted. She studied in Russia.
On her father's background, she said, "There was nothing to comment. It would raise controversy". Her mother, Reshma, is a BJP councillor from Saijpur Bogha.
In the city, BJP repeated only chief minister Bhupendra Patel from Ghatlodia and Jagdish Vishwakarma from Nikol seat, while the rest of the candidates are new. Hasmukh Patel is another doctor who has been given the ticket.