With her acquittal within the second and final case in opposition to her within the 2002 riots instances, doorways at the moment are open for former Bharatiya Janata Party minister Maya Kodnani to stage a comeback in Gujarat’s lively politics, a decade after her political graph nosedived following allegations associated to the post-Godhra communal violence. Gujarat BJP leaders on Friday stated if the physician-turned-politician, as soon as a member of the highly effective Narendra Modi ministry within the state and rising star in politics, needs to return to lively politics, the saffron get together will certainly assign work to her. On Thursday, Kodnani, 68, was acquitted by a particular courtroom within the February 28, 2002, Naroda Gam riots case through which 11 members of a minority neighborhood had been burnt to loss of life and their homes set on fireplace by a mob enraged by the burning of Sabarmati Express practice close to Godhra a day earlier that killed 59 passengers. This was the second and remaining riots case through which she was named an accused. Earlier, the one BJP minister named within the violence was cleared within the Naroda Patiya case. “Kodnani is an lively employee and participates in get together capabilities.
It is her private selection whether or not she needs to participate in lively politics,” said a senior BJP leader. “It is as much as her to determine whether or not she needs to stay lively in politics. If she does, then the get together will certainly assign her work,” he said. Before her acquittal in the Naroda Gam case, Kodnani was in April 2018 cleared by the Gujarat High Court in the 2002 Naroda Patiya massacre. As many as 97 people were killed during riots in Ahmedabad’s Naroda Patiya area and in the case she was dubbed a “kingpin” by a particular courtroom that sentenced her to life imprisonment in August 2012, however the verdict was overturned by the HC. Both areas are a part of the Assembly constituency as soon as represented by the BJP chief. Soon after her acquittal by the HC, Kodnani, an Ahmedabad resident and three-time former MLA, was seen at among the BJP capabilities within the state. During the marketing campaign for the December 2022 Assembly elections, the previous MLA was noticed at BJP capabilities, sharing dais with high get together management the place she was greeted with zeal.
Kodnani, going through the dual riots instances, was pressured to resign as Minister of State for Women and Child Development within the then-Narendra Modi authorities after the Gujarat High Court rejected her anticipatory bail on March 27, 2009. Following this, she surrendered earlier than the Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT) shaped to additional examine the 2002 Godhra practice carnage and eight different riots instances, together with these reported in Ahmedabad’s Naroda Gam and Naroda Patiya through which she was made an accused. The BJP chief was a sitting MLA when she was sentenced to life imprisonment by a particular courtroom within the Naroda Patiya bloodbath case in 2012. Kodnani started her political profession by helming the Ahmedabad BJP Mahila Morcha and getting elected as a councillor of the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation after which chairperson of the civic physique’s standing committee within the Nineteen Nineties. A gynaecologist by coaching, Kodnani was seen as a rising star amongst girls leaders of the BJP. She entered the Assembly for the primary time in 1998 when she was elected from the Naroda constituency in Ahmedabad, defeating the Congress candidate by an enormous margin of greater than 74,500 votes.
After the 2002 riots, she gained the identical seat by an even bigger margin of greater than 1 lakh votes within the Assembly election held in December that 12 months. In 2003, the BJP elevated her because the president of the get together’s Ahmedabad unit. She went on to win the Assembly elections for the third time period from Naroda in 2007, this time by a fair larger margin of greater than 1.80 lakh votes, additional elevating her stature within the saffron get together. After her third victory, she was rewarded with a ministership within the state’s Modi authorities. Kodnani was made Minister of State for Women and Child Development and Higher Education, however her political profession suffered a setback when she was arraigned within the two riots instances by the SC-appointed SIT and needed to resign in 2009.
