As many as 882 Muslim candidates had contested either as an Independent or on the ticket of political parties in 2014 and only 23 managed to win. As per data, they managed to get vote share of 10.69 per cent. In 2009, 819 Muslim candidates contested and only 28 won their seats.
In most cases, Muslim candidates lost because of division of votes since the “so-called secular” parties have a tendency to field Muslim candidates from these seats, much to advantage of the BJP.
Despite the fact, there are 145 Lok Sabha seats in the country where Muslims account for 20 per cent of the overall vote share on each seat. There are 46 seats where Muslims have a vote share of 30 per cent and above. There are 35 seats in which out of every 3 votes is a Muslim vote.
Uttar Pradesh has maximum 28 such constituencies, West Bengal has 20, Jammu & Kashmir has five, Kerala has six, Assam and Bihar has four each and Andhra Pradesh has two. The Lakshadweep seat is yet another Muslim-majority constituency.
According to Census 2001, Muslims in India comprise 13.4 per cent of the total population. Based on this the ideal number of MPs in Lok Sabha should be 73. In the 2014 elections, the BJP came to power without a single elected Muslim MP — in any case it had fielded only seven Muslims (5 in J&K and Bengal alone) out of a total of 482 candidates. The total Muslim representation in Parliament fell to 4 per cent, the lowest since 1957.
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Muslim candidates bear
brunt of division of votes
Muslims, by and large, have voted for non-BJP parties, or anti-BJP parties in States where BJP has been an important player for long. In States like UP, Bihar and West Bengal where there has been more than one ‘secular’ option, Muslims have adopted ‘tactical voting’, where they vote for the best possible candidate who can defeat BJP.
Muslim scholar Maroof Khan said that the Muslim identity on the ground is highly fragmented based on various religious denominations, linguistic differences, caste divisions, and class hierarchy. “For instance, in a State with a bipolar contest, the Congress wins most of the Muslim votes if the BJP is its only competitor. And if a strong regional player is present in the State, then the Congress has to fight hard to win the support among Muslims. In some cases, regional parties garner maximum votes from the community. For example, the Muslim vote in Jammu & Kashmir is divided among the National Conference (NC) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), among the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the Left Front in West Bengal, among the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in Uttar Pradesh,” Khan said.
The report “Vision 2025 Socio Economic Inequalities, Why does India’s economic growth need an inclusive agenda”, authored by economist Amir Ullah Khan and historian Abdul Azim Akhtar points out that Muslim votes usually split into the different favourite political parties in their concentrated seats.
“Muslim voters get confused between SP, BSP, Congress in UP and RJD, JD(U) and Congress in Bihar. These parties are known to having the vote bank among Muslim and generally give the ticket to Muslim candidates in their concentrated seats. Such confusion within the favourite parties leads to splitting their votes and makes the election three to four cornered,” the report said. The report further stated that Muslims are considered as a vote bank only by mainstream political parties.
According to data compiled by The Pioneer, Bijnor (39.33%), Amroha (37.50%), Moradabad (44.78%), Rampur (49.14%), Meerut (30.86%), Muzaffarnagar (36.94%), Kairana (38.53%), Saharanpur (39.11%), Sambhal (45.54%), Nagina (41.71), Bahraich (34.83%), Bareilly (33.89%) and Shrawasti (31.34%) are among the 28 seats in UP where Muslim dominates 30 per cent and above.
There are 11 seat among the 20 minority-dominated seat which include Raiganj (47.36%), Malda North (49.73%), Malda South (53.46) Jangipur (63.67%), Murshidabad (58.31%), Baharampur (63.67%), Diamond Harbour (33.24%), Birbhum (35.08%) , Jadavpur (33.24%), Joynagar (33.24%) and Mathurapur (33.24%) have 30 per cent and above Muslim population.
In Kerala Kasaragod (32.54), Kozhikode (37.47), Mallapuram (68.53%), Ponnani (64%) Wayanad (57.98%) and Vadakara (34.70%) are Muslim dominated. Bihar four seats include Araria, (41.14%), Kishanganj (56.66%), Katihar (42.53%) and Purnia (37.65%); Jammu & Kashmir seats include Baramulla (97%), Srinagar (90%), Anantnag (95%), Ladakh (46%) and Udhampur (31%); Assam’s four seat include Karimganj, (45%), Dhubri (56%), Barpeta (39%) and Nagaon (33%). Andhra Pradesh’s two seats Hyderabad (41.17%)%) and Secundrabad (41.17%) are Muslim seats.
The study finds that 89 per cent of Muslims face challenges as a minority community. A whopping 86 per cent of the respondents were not aware of the Government schemes. Around 44 per cent of the respondents were not aware of the Sachar Committee report.
The Study shows that Muslims, with 14.2 per cent population according Census 2011 are lagging behind in all parameters of development index. The total sample size for the study was 3,400, which included both Muslim and Non-Muslim respondents in 13 States including West Bengal, Assam, Gujarat, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Jammu & Kashmir.
