After last month’s Assembly election results, Maharashtra is down from 11 Muslim MLAs and three Muslim Ministers in the previous Assembly to nine Muslim legislators and no Ministers now. The BJP, which swept to power in the State with 122 MLAs, fielded just one Muslim candidate, who lost.
Haryana, meanwhile, is down from five Muslim MLAs and one Minister to three MLAs and no Minister. The BJP, which won 47 seats to form the government, fielded only two Muslim candidates, both of whom lost.
Chhattisgarh and Goa have no Muslim MLAs, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Gujarat have one each. This is a significant change from how these States’ outgoing Assemblies looked. Leaving out Andhra Pradesh, whose boundaries changed, there were twice as many Muslim MLAs in the outgoing Assemblies as there are today in the remaining eight States where the BJP is in power on its own or in an alliance.
On the other hand, there are 52 Ministers in the 13 big States not ruled by the BJP, making up 16 per cent of those States’ total ministerial berths. While Muslim-majority Jammu and Kashmir leads with three-fourth of its Ministers Muslim, Kerala, Assam and Uttar Pradesh follow.
Non-BJP-ruled States have 300 Muslim MLAs, who make up 13 per cent of their Assemblies. These States, however, also have a higher Muslim proportion in their populations — 17 per cent going by the 2001 Census — as compared with the BJP-ruled States.
“The process of delimitation has been such that Muslims do not form a sizeable number in many constituencies,” Navaid Hamid, general secretary, Movement for Empowerment of Muslim Indians, said.
“Added to that, there has been a systematic attempt by political parties to create hate against Muslims.” These processes have led to a situation where even a major Muslim politician cannot win from any seat except one with a large Muslim majority, he said. “If this continues, there is a fear that Muslims, especially youngsters, will lose faith in the electoral system,” he added.
