Gujarat polls: Bagging state's lowest of just 30 votes, JD(U) Bapunagar candidate blames party

Pathan Emtiazkhan Sidkhan, JDUs candidate from Bapunagar seat in Ahmedabad, had the misfortune of polling just 30 votes, the lowest by any contestant in the just-concluded Gujarat assembly elections.The 45-year-old, however, sought to put the blame on his party for not campaigning for him.I would have got more votes had I contested as an independent candidate, he said.Pathan is not new to politics.

Pathan Emtiazkhan Sidkhan, JD(U)'s candidate from Bapunagar seat in Ahmedabad, had the misfortune of polling just 30 votes, the lowest by any contestant in the just-concluded Gujarat assembly elections.

The 45-year-old, however, sought to put the blame on his party for not campaigning for him.

''I would have got more votes had I contested as an independent candidate,'' he said.

Pathan is not new to politics. He had earlier tried his luck in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections from Kheda constituency in Gujarat and, according to him, he had got over 5,000 votes.

''I was an independent candidate then. But who knows JD(U) here? No one. This was bound to happen,'' he said, adding that the party gave tickets to about half a dozen candidates and all lost. The votes Pathan got were the lowest among the 1,621 candidates who contested for a total of 182 seats in the state. The BJP registered a historic victory by clinching 156 seats.

A key witness of the Gulberg society massacre during the 2002 Gujarat riots, Pathan said that after the 2019 elections, he joined Asaduddin Owaisi's All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) and remained a member for two years. ''But when I realised the party would not give me a ticket for the 2022 assembly elections, I had to switch sides to JD(U),'' he said. Consoling himself while referring to some candidates from other constituencies, who got less than 100 votes, Pathan, an electrician by profession, said, ''I didn't expect such a pathetic response but I want to accept it as people's verdict.'' PTI JP ZMN ZMN

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