Former Union minister and Bharatiya Janata Party leader Syed Shahnawaz Hussain on Friday admitted that opposition parties had been able to successfully use the post-Godhra communal violence in Gujarat to garner votes in the recent Lok Sabha polls.
He alleged that the opposition circulated CDs of the Gujarat riots to wean away the minorities from the BJP. He sought to compare his defeat to that of Congress' Buta Singh after the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.
"Our opponents were successful in making Gujarat an election issue and were able to capitalise by seeking a negative vote. As a Muslim leader, I never thought that Gujarat would ever become a major issue in the elections and we always thought that development issues would help the National Democratic Alliance," said Hussain who lost in Kishenganj, Bihar.
"We were only criticised for the violence in Gujarat and never got credit for the peace that prevailed in the state prior to this or later," he told reporters in Delhi.
However, he claimed senior BJP leaders Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Lal Kishenchand Advani had through their election campaign managed to secure the votes of a large section of the Muslim community.