23 Out Of 78 Muslim Candidates Wins Lok Sabha Polls
To the 18th Lok Sabha in 2024, out of 78 Muslim candidates who were in the fray, 23 of them have been elected to the Parliament‘s lower house. The elected members include TMC candidate and former Indian cricketer Yusuf Pathan and AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi.
Among the elected members, most are from constituencies where the community is in a majority. It is to be highlighted that only 78 Muslim candidates were fielded by the parties this election which is a significant drop from the last polls, where 115 candidates were in the contest.
The diminishing number of Muslim legislators can be attributed to the parties’ unwillingness to field them fearing a polarising contest.
TMC candidate and former Indian cricketer Yusuf Pathan secured a comfortable victory over Congress’ senior leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdary in his bastion Baharampur.
Congress candidate Imran Masood from Saharanpur won with a margin of 64,542 votes. Samajwadi candidate Iqra Chowdhary won from the Kairana constituency of Uttar Pradesh.
Samajwadi Party candidates Mohibullah from Rampur, Zia ur Rehman from Sambhal, Afzal Ansari from Ghazipur, from Uttar Pradesh were elected to the parliament.
In West Bengal’s Baharampur seat, first-time contender Yusuf Pathan beat the Congress leader in the Lok Sabha and six-time MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhary by 85,022 votes.
Similarly, Khalilur Rahman won from the Jangipur constituency, Abu Taher Khan from Murshidabad, SK Nurul Islam from Basirhat, Sajda Ahmed from Uluberia (all from TMC), Congress’ Isha Khan Choudhury from Maldaha Dakshin won from West Bengal.
AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi won by defeating his nearest rival Kompella Madhavi Latha of the BJP by 3,38,087 votes to record his fifth consecutive victory.
In Jammu and Kashmir, Aga Syed Ruhullah Mehdi from Srinagar, Mian Altaf Ahmed from Anantnag- Rajouri (both from National Conference) , and Abdul Rashid Sheikh (independent) from Baramulla won. Mohmad Haneefa won from Ladakh by securing 65,259 votes.
Mohammed Jawed, candidate of Congress from Kishanganj of Bihar won with a margin of 59,692.
From Assam, Congress’ Rakibul Hussain won from the Dhubri constituency who won with a record margin of 10.12 lakh votes.
In Kerala, three out of 20 MPs are from Muslim community. Shafi Parambil from Vadakara, E T Mohammed Basheer from Malappuram, Dr MP Abdussamad Samadhani from Ponnani are among the Muslim MPs representing their respective constituencies.
Muhammed Hamdullah Sayeed, son of former Congress leader PM Sayeed from Lakshadweep constituency and Navas Kani K from Ramanathapuram, Tamil Nadu were too elected to the parliament.
The Muslim candidates fielded by alliances in the contest reveals a significant underrepresentation of a community which constitute 14.2 per cent of the Indian population in the electoral politics. Modi’s BJP which claims to be the “biggest political party in the world” had only one Muslim candidate out of 441 and Congress has 19 out of 328 candidates.
With the resignation of federal minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi in 2022, the India’s ruling party is with no Muslim representatives in the Parliament, both lower and upper house. Though the BJP-led NDA alliance won both the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections, none of their Muslim candidates were elected to the Parliament.
In the 2014 Lok Sabha election, BJP has fielded seven Muslims and six Muslim candidates in the 2019 Lok Sabha election.
