With her acquittal in the second and last case against her in the 2002 riots cases, doors are now open for former Bharatiya Janata Party minister Maya Kodnani to return to active politics in Gujarat, a decade after her political graph Had fallen due to allegations related to racketeering. post godhra communal violence
Gujarat BJP leaders said on Friday that the doctor-turned-politician was once a member of the powerful Narendra Modi A rising star in ministry and politics in the state, wants to return to active politics, the saffron party will definitely give her a job.
On Thursday, 68-year-old Kodnani was acquitted by a special court in the Naroda Gam riots case on February 28, 2002, in which 11 members of a minority community were burnt to death and their houses set on fire by an irate mob. Had put A day earlier, the Sabarmati Express train derailed near Godhra, killing 59 passengers.
This was the second and last riot case in which he was made an accused. Earlier, the only BJP minister named in the violence, Naroda Patiya, was acquitted in the case.
A senior BJP leader said, “Kodnani is an active worker and participates in party events. It is her personal choice whether she wants to participate in active politics or not.”
“It is for her to decide whether she wants to be active in politics or not. If she does, the party will definitely give her the job,” he said.
Prior to his acquittal in the Naroda Gam case, Kodnani was acquitted in the 2002 Naroda Patiya massacre by the Gujarat High Court in April 2018. At least 97 people were killed during the riots in Ahmedabad’s Naroda Patiya area and he was termed a “ringleader” in the case by a special court, which sentenced him to life imprisonment in August 2012, but overturned the verdict. HC overturned.
Both the regions are part of the assembly constituency that was once represented by BJP leaders.
Kodnani, a three-time former MLA from Ahmedabad, was seen at some BJP events in the state soon after her acquittal by the High Court. During the campaign for the December 2022 assembly elections, the former MLA was seen sharing the stage with the party’s top leadership at BJP events, where he was greeted with enthusiasm.
Kodnani, facing double riots cases, was forced to resign as Minister of State for Women and Child Development in the then Narendra Modi government after the Gujarat High Court rejected her anticipatory bail on March 27, 2009 .
Subsequently, he surrendered before the Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT) set up to probe the 2002 Godhra train carnage and eight other riot cases, including those reported at Ahmedabad’s Naroda Gam and Naroda Patiya, in which He was made an accused.
The BJP leader was a sitting MLA when she was sentenced to life imprisonment by a special court in the Naroda Patiya massacre case in 2012.
Kodnani started her political career by steering the Ahmedabad BJP Mahila Morcha and was elected a councilor of the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation and then the chairperson of the civic body’s standing committee in the 1990s.
A gynecologist by training, Kodnani was seen as a rising star among the BJP’s women leaders. She entered the Legislative Assembly for the first time in 1998 when she was elected from the Naroda constituency in Ahmedabad, defeating the Congress candidate by a huge margin of over 74,500 votes.
After the 2002 riots, he won the same seat with a huge margin of over 1 lakh votes in the assembly elections held in December of the same year.
In 2003, the BJP promoted him as the president of the Ahmedabad unit of the party. He won the Vidhansabha election for a third term in 2007 from Naroda, this time by a huge margin of over 1.80 lakh votes, further increasing his stature in the saffron party.
After his third victory, he was rewarded with a ministerial berth in the state’s Modi government.
Kodnani was made Minister of State for Women and Child Development and Higher Education, but her political career suffered a setback when she was convicted in two riots cases by the SC-appointed SIT and had to resign in 2009.
read all latest politics news Here
(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed)