SRINAGAR, CNS: For more than 178 million Muslim population in India, there are only 24 Muslim Parliament members who are supposed to represent them in coming five years. The number of Muslim members have come down because of the thumping sweep of Bhartiya Janata Party which had not fielded many Muslim candidates.
The result has not surprised the community. BJP had not fielded Muslim candidates, which routed the Congress. Muslim votes were divided as major chunk of Muslim votes had gone to others due to misrule of Congress. Muslims usually supported Congress party but there was anti-incumbency factor besides the party failed to woo the community during its 10 year rule, a senior member of Minority Commission told CNS.
The representation of Muslims in this Lok Sabha will be the lowest since the first general election of 1952. The 16th Lok Sabha will have just 24 Muslim MPs, down from 30 in the 15th. That translates to 4.4% of the strength of the House.
According to the media reports Muslims constituted 4.3% of the first Lok Sabha in 1952, but their proportion has hovered between five and six per cent for the last quarter of a century after dropping from a high of 9.3% or 49 members in the LS elected in the 1980 elections.
The incoming House will have no Muslim MPs from Uttar Pradesh, a first. It will also not have any from Maharashtra, a large state with a substantial Muslim population. The only states to have elected MPs from the community are West Bengal (eight), Jammu & Kashmir (four), Bihar (four), Kerala (three), Assam (two) and Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Lakshadweep (one each). Of these, of course J&K as well as Lakshadweep have Muslim-majority populations. (CNS)
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