The new Lok Sabha will have 27 Muslim MPs. The previous house had 23
New Delhi: The number of Muslim Members in the Lok Sabha has gone up a bit, with 27 of them being elected from various states. The previous house had 23. But the National Democratic Alliance which will rule the nation for the next five years has just one Muslim MP, Mahboob Ali Kaiser, who won from Khagaria in Bihar. He has been elected on the ticket of LJP, an NDA ally. The BJP had fielded six Muslims, three each in Jammu and Kashmir and West Bengal. All of them were defeated.
Two Muslims have emerged victorious from unlikely places i.e., Mohammed Sadiq in Faridkot in Punjab, and Imtiaz Jaleel Syed, a former journalist and a sitting MLA in Maharashtra Assembly, from Aurangabad. Punjab has never elected an MP earlier. The state has less than 4% Muslims, most of them concentrated in Malerkotla town.
The Trinamool Congress Party takes the credit for sending the largest number of Muslims i.e., five, to the Lok Sabha. They are 1: Aparupa Poddar from Arambagh who has taken the name Afrin Ali after embracing Islam upon marriage, 2: Nusrat Jahan Ruhi, Bengali actress from Basirhat; 3: Khaleelur Rahman from Jangipur; 4: Abu Taher Khan from Murshidabad; 5: Sajda Ahmed from Uluberia, who retained her seat. Besides, Abu Hasem Khan Chowdhury of Congress also retained his seat from Maldaha South. A prominent loser this time is Benazir Mausam Noor who changed her party from Congress to TMC before elections and lost.
Six from SP-BSP
Six Muslims, three each from Samajwadi Party (SP) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), have made it to Parliament this time. Those who won on the SP ticket are: Afzal Ansari from Ghazipur; Fazalur Rahman from Saharanpur and Danish Ali in Amroha. Registering victory on BSP ticket are: Azam Khan, the veteran SP leader from Rampur; Shafique Rahman Barq from Sambhal; and, S. T. Hasan from Moradabad. Azam Khan defeated film actress Jaya Prada who had joined the BJP a month before the elections. Danish Ali was General Secretary of the Samajwadi Party at all-Indian level and resigned the party before election. He joined the BSP with the blessings of JDS supremo H. D. Devegowda.
Three from IUML
The Indian Union Muslim League will have three representatives in the Lok Sabha during this tenure. They are : Kunhalikutty from Malappuram; E. T. Mohammed Basheer from Ponnani; and, Navas Ghani from Ramanathpuram in Tamil Nadu. IUML was part of the DMK-led front in Tamil Nadu. However, there is one more Muslim, A. N. Ariff from Kerala (from Alappzha) who won the seat on CPI(M) ticket. He is the lone LDF candidate to win from Kerala.
NCP from Lakshdweep
Mohammed Faizal P. P. of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) won the seat for a second time from Lakshadweep islands, a constituency off the Kerala coast. The constituency has only around 50,000 voters. It is reserved for the Scheduled Tribes (ST). Nearly 99% of the population consists of Muslims and are categorized under STs.
MIM count goes up
Barrister Asaduddin Owaisi of the All India Majlise Ittihadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) has won the Lok Sabha election for the fourth time in a row from the traditional Hyderabad seat. The party’s strength goes up to two for the first time in Lok Sabha with Imtiaz Jaleel joining him from Aurangabad.
JandK has Three
Jammu and Kashmir, a Muslim majority state in India, has elected three Muslim MPs on the National Conference (NC) ticket. They are Hasnain Masoodi from Anantnag; Farooq Abdullah from Srinagar and Mohammed Akbar Lone from Baramulla.
Congress will have four Muslim faces in the new Lok Sabha. Mohammed Jawed has bagged the Kishenganj seat from Bihar. Another Congress Muslim nominee Abdul Khaleque won from Barpeta in Assam. Two other Muslims winning on Congress ticket are Abu Hasem Chowdhury from West Bengal and Md. Sadique from Faridkot in Punjab.
Besides them all, Mr. Badruddin Ajmal of All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) has retained his Dhubri seat in Assam. During the last tenure, the party had three MPs.
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