Gujarat elections 2022: BJP gives ticket to Naroda Patiya riots case convict’s daughter

Payal Kukrani, daughter of Gujarat riot convict Manoj Kukrani, is BJP candidate from Naroda for the upcoming assembly elections. Pic/PTI

The Bharatiya Janata Party has fielded the daughter of a 2002 post-Godhra Naroda Patiya massacre case convict from Naroda seat of Ahmedabad for the upcoming Assembly elections.

Payal Kukrani, 30, is daughter of Manoj Kukrani, who is one of the 16 convicts in the Naroda Patiya riots case in which 97 Muslims were killed. An anaesthetist by profession, she is also among the youngest candidates fielded by the ruling party this time. The Gujarat High Court had in 2018 upheld the conviction of Manoj Kukrani and 15 others in the riot case. Kukrani, who was sentenced to life imprisonment, is currently out on bail.

Talking about the BJP's move to field her, Payal said, "I am grateful to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, state BJP president CR Paatil, Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel and all party workers and members. My mother is a corporator and my parents have long been associated with the BJP. I had participated in the election process in the past."

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She said if she wins the election, her priority would be to develop the constituency and resolve the issues faced by the local people. The Kukrani family belongs to the Sindhi community that dominates the area. Some BJP workers in the area have expressed unhappiness over her candidature as they believe that she is married to a non-Sindhi and hence, is no longer a member of the community.

The BJP has held the Naroda Assembly seat since 1990. Former BJP minister Maya Kodnani, who became the MLA in 1998 and retained the Naroda seat in 2002 and 2007, was also one of the convicts in the Naroda Patiya riots case, one of the nine major communal riots that occurred in the wake of the train burning incident at Godhra. She was arrested in 2009 but was acquitted in 2018. Elections to the 182-member Assembly in Gujarat, where BJP is currently in power, will be held on December 1 and 5.

Congress promises jobs, free electricity and healthcare

The Congress in its manifesto for Gujarat Assembly election promised 10 lakh jobs in government and semi-government departments, free medical treatment of up to Rs 10 lakh, LPG cylinder at R500 and 300 units of free electricity every month. The grand old party also said that it would restore the name of the Narendra Modi Stadium in Motera area of Ahmedabad as Sardar Patel Stadium and revoke the remission granted by the state government to 11 convicts in the 2002 Bilkis Bano case allowing their premature release from jail, if voted to power. The 11 men convicted in the case walked out of the Godhra sub-jail on August 15.

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