Indian Election 2009

The GPCC shied away from using the 2002 riots as an issue during the 2007 state assembly elections. It seems equally reluctant to claim the moral high ground on human rights issues. While P Chidambaram and Manmohan Singh have made repeated references to Modi and Advani's role in 2002 bloodshed, Gujarat Congress has categorically refrained from doing so. The Congress's strategy is to paint Advani as an administrator of communal divisiveness in the country and an unreliable leader, during whose stint as Union home minister hundreds of people were killed in Gujarat; and in the process, strengthening ties with the minority community.

BJP's minority bet for major gains

With some prominent Muslims, including former top cop AI Saiyed, joining the BJP in the run up to the Lok Sabha elections, the saffron party seems to have made serious efforts to broaden its base and reach out to minorities.

Sajjad Hira, president of Gujarat BJP Minority morcha, says he does not feel any dichotomy in supporting the BJP. "In the last seven years, the Gujarat government has brought about good development and Muslims in the state have benefited too," says Hira who joined the BJP's precursor Jan Sangh in 1977 when he was just 15 years old. "My father was associated with the Jan Sangh leaders and I too followed in his footsteps."

Rafiq Memon, the Ahmedabad city minority cell president, says the Muslims have seen through the Congress charade. "The Congress keeps harping on our minority status. They only use us as a vote bank. We are sick of this. We want to be part of the mainstream and Narendra Modi has brought us into the mainstream."