Despite accounting for six to seven per cent of Tamil Nadu’s population, only five Muslims have been elected to the Legislative Assembly in 2016.
While an identical number of Muslim members were elected to the House in 2011, what has changed is that only one MLA belongs to a ‘Muslim’ party. The other four belong to either one of the two Dravidian majors or have fought the elections on their symbol.
“If you take the population alone into consideration, there has to be at least 14 MLAs in the House. But, even electing 10 members to the House is becoming difficult without the support of bigger parties,” says Thamimum Ansari, who won from Nagapattinam, contesting on the AIADMK’s ‘Two Leaves’ symbol. The other members of the House are Labour Minister Nilofer Kabil, T.P.M. Mohideen Khan (DMK), K.A.M. Muhammad Abubacker (IUML) and K.S. Masthan (DMK).
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Mr. Ansari urged the bigger parties such as the DMK, the AIADMK and the Congress to ensure adequate representation of the Muslim community in their list of candidates. “Though Muslims can be an influencing factor in up to 40 constituencies in Tamil Nadu, we cannot win those seats without the support of established political parties. Therefore, we need bigger parties to support us,” he says.
The lack of members from ‘Muslim parties’ in the State Assembly, save for the lone IUML MLA, Muhammad Abubacker from Kadaiyanallur, Muslim leaders think, might make it difficult for the community to let their grievances be heard in the Assembly.
“Manithaneya Makkal Katchi, which had two MLAs in 2011, was able to address the problems of the community. If you belong to the Dravidian parties, you might have to toe the line of the party leader and compromise on certain issues,” says M.H. Jawahirullah, leader, Manithaneya Makkal Katchi, who was defeated in Ramanathapuram.
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He says that Dravidian parties, which sometimes insist that smaller parties contest on their symbol, restrict the growth of the parties representing the minorities or depressed classes.
“In a genuinely good gesture this time, the DMK allotted 10 seats to the Muslim parties. They gave us a good representation. But unfortunately, we were not able to capitalise on it. I hope the DMK will speak for the community in the Assembly,” he says.