AHMEDABAD: The epic election of Ahmed Patel, political advisor to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, to the Rajya Sabha three months back may have given the Gujarat Congress a shot in the arm. However, from a peak of 12 MLAs in 1980, the number of Muslim MLAs in the Gujarat assembly is down to just two, despite the community making up 9% of the state’s population.The rise of Hindutva since the early 90s has seen minority representation dwindle in the house. While the BJP, which has fought elections on the Hindutva plank, has fielded just one Muslim candidate, in 1998, in eight assembly elections, the Congress has also sharply curtailed the number of tickets it gives to minority candidates.The Congress fielded its highest number of Muslim candidates, 17, in the 1980 assembly polls from constituencies in Ahmedabad, Rajkot, Jamnagar, Gandhinagar, Patan, Panchmahals, Kheda, Bharuch, Surat, Bhavnagar, Banaskantha, Aravalli and Vadodara districts. Twelve of them won. From 1985 to 1995, the Congress fielded 10-11 candidates but this number was slashed to mere 5-6 post-Godhra — in 2002, 2007 and 2012. In last assembly polls, Congress fielded Muslim candidates only in Ahmedabad, Bharuch and Rajkot districts.The obvious reason was the sharp communal divide. Gone are the days when a Muslim could win with support from the community and a little help from the Congress vote bank.In 1998, the saffron party for the first time gave ticket to a Muslim, Abdul Ghani Qureshi, who contested from Vagra in Bharuch. Qureshi lost miserably to Congress candidate Iqbal Patel by 26,439 votes out of total the 93,000 votes polled. The experiment proved that the BJP doesn’t favour Muslims and vice-versa.After burning their fingers just this one time, BJP never fielded any Muslim candidate. In fact, when the then CM Narendra Modi sat on a much-hyped ‘Sadbhavana Mission’ in Ahmedabad in September 2011, hopes were kindled that the party may field a Muslim candidate but that goodwill gesture never came.“The BJP decision to give tickets always depends on the winnability factor of candidates. The party’s parliamentary board never gets swayed by religion and caste,” says Sufi Bawa, president of Gujarat BJP’s minority cell.Bawa insists that Muslims and BJP have warmed to each other in the past five to six years. “In local body elections since 2010, BJP fielded 350 Muslim candidates of which 240 won. Many Muslims have represented for tickets for the 2017 assembly polls and we are positive that BJP will field Muslims in the coming elections.”Congress minority cell chief Gulab Raoma says that post-2002 riots polarization made even Congress wary of fielding Muslim candidates. "It is true that Congress cut down on giving tickets to Muslims post the 2002 Godhra riots. Strong polarization adversely impacted winnability of Muslim candidates", says Raoma.Iqbal Patel, three time Congress MLA who lost 2012 elections in Vagra (Bharuch) to BJP says, "Apart from polarization, I lost because delimitation resulted in merging of majority dominated areas in Vagra and minority-dominated pockets were shifted to adjoining constituency of Jambusar."Gyasuddin Sheikh, sitting MLA from Jamalpur, who is seeking another term says, "Due to sharp polarization, only those candidates who enjoy decent goodwill among majority voters get elected. Otherwise, it is an uphill task for a Muslim candidate to win on minority votes alone".