NEW DELHI With all but one of the 542 races declared, the BJP’s majority crossed 300 on Friday; it is well clear of the threshold of 272 seats needed to govern. Not since 1984 has a single party won back-to-back majorities.
The previous record-holder was Rajiv Gandhi’s Congress, now facing a crisis under the stewardship of his son, Rahul Gandhi. Despite encouraging state election results in the Hindi belt, the party of India’s independence movement seems, at least for now, stripped of its former might. It has won just 52 seats, up from an even paltrier 44 in 2014 — that’s not even enough to appoint a Leader of the Opposition.
After the Congress, the DMK, with 23 seats, is the third largest party in the Lok Sabha. The Tamil Nadu party is also the only UPA ally with numbers in the double digits. Another staunch ally, Lalu Prasad’s RJD, failed to open its account. Former NDA ally, TDP, which had worked actively to bring about the opposition unity, is a much reduced force at three MPs. The party had 15 MPs in the previous Lok Sabha. TDP rival, YSR Congress, now has 22 MPs in the lower house. On the other hand, NDA ally JD(U), which had fought the 2014 general elections separately, winning just two seats then, now has 16 MPs. Another NDA ally, the AIADMK, which was the third largest party in the previous Lok Sabha, has managed to win just two seats.
The Left’s presence has been reduced to just five. The Left parties had ten MPs in the previous Lok Sabha.
Although still very low, representation of Muslim Parliamentarians in 17th Lok Sabha has slightly gone up to 25 against 23 in the outgoing Lok Sabha.
Muslim representation in the Lower House comes to less than 5 per cent of its total composition, way below the communitys 14-per cent share in total population.
The BJP is the only winning party in general elections to not have a single Muslim MP. The party had given tickets to two Muslim candidates in West Bengal, where the community accounts for about 27 per cent of the states population; one in Lakshadweep, which has over 95 per cent Muslim population; and three in Muslim-majority Kashmir Valley. None of the six candidates could make it to Lok Sabha.
LS To Have 27 Muslim MPs
The number of Muslim MPs in the Lok Sabha has increased to a decade high of 27, up from 23 last time, with a dozen of them winning from Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal even as none of the six Muslim candidates fielded by BJP tasted victory.
Registering an emphatic win, BJP-led NDA has won the general elections with a thumping majority and the party alone has won 303 seats.
National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah, AIMIM’s outspoken chief Asaduddin Owaisi and Samajwadi Party’s Azam Khan are among the high profile Muslim candidates who have won the polls.
Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal, which have considerable Muslim population, have six candidates each from the community to the Lok Sabha. Kerala and Jammu & Kashmir have three Muslim MPs each while Assam and Bihar have two each. There is one MP each from the community from Punjab, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Lakshadweep and Telangana.
Among the political parties, Trinamool Congress has five Muslim MPs, followed by four of Congress. There are three Muslim MPs each from Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), National Conference and Indian Union Muslim League (IUML).
AIMIM has sent two Muslim MPs, including party chief Owaisi, while there is one Muslim MP each from Ram Vilas Paswan-led LJP, Sharad Pawar’s NCP, CPI(M) and perfume baron Badruddin Ajmal’s party AIUDF, as per latest data from the Election Commission.
Nearly 20 per cent of the country’s 130 crore population are Muslims.
The outgoing Lok Sabha, the 16th one, has 23 Muslim MPs, the most being from Congress and Trinamool Congress.
Follow this link to join our WhatsApp group: Join Now
Be Part of Quality Journalism |
Quality journalism takes a lot of time, money and hard work to produce and despite all the hardships we still do it. Our reporters and editors are working overtime in Kashmir and beyond to cover what you care about, break big stories, and expose injustices that can change lives. Today more people are reading Kashmir Observer than ever, but only a handful are paying while advertising revenues are falling fast. |
| ACT NOW |
| MONTHLY | Rs 100 |  |
| YEARLY | Rs 1000 | |
| LIFETIME | Rs 10000 | |
