Nine Muslim representatives have won the election in the Karnataka assembly elections, despite multiple political parties fielding Muslim candidates in the elections.
In the 2018 elections, only 7 Muslim candidates were elected, all from the Congress party. However, in the 2023 elections, 2 additional Muslims won, bringing the total number of Muslim legislators to 9. This is still lower than the highest Muslim representation of 16 legislators in 1978.
Congress fielded 15 Muslim candidates, while Janata Dal (Secular) and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) fielded 21 and 15 Muslim candidates, respectively. The Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) fielded 11 Muslim candidates, and All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) fielded 1 Muslim candidate.
Winners:
- Kaneez Fatima, the only Muslim woman to have won, defeated Chandrakant Patil of the Bhartiya Janata Party in the Gulbarga Uttar constituency. She won the election in 2018, and her husband, late Qamar Ul Islam, had won the seat in 2013.
- BZ Zameer Ahmed Khan won the Chamrajpet constituency in Bangalore city with the biggest victory margin among Muslim candidates. He defeated BJP’s Bhaskar Rao.
- Tanveer Sait won the Narasimharaja constituency for the sixth time in a row, defeating BJP’s S. Satheesh Sandesh Swamy. Sait secured 83480 votes, while Sandesh Swamy got 52360 votes.
- UT Abdul Khader won from the Mangalore constituency, defeating Sathish Kumpala of BJP. Khader got 83219 votes, while Kumpala secured 60429 votes.
- NA Haris won from Shantinagar, beating K Shivakumar of BJP. Haris secured 61030 votes, and Shivakumar got 53905 votes.
- Rizwan Arshad, who became an MLA for the first time in 2019 during the by-poll election in Shivajinagar, won the constituency by securing 64913 votes. His nearest rival, Chandra N of BJP, secured 41719 votes.
- Rahim Khan defeated Suryakanth Nagmarpally of JDS to retain the Bidar seat. Khan secured 69165 votes, while Nagmarpally got 58385 votes.
- Iqbal Hussain H A defeated heavyweight candidate Nikhil Kumaraswamy of JDS in the Ramanagara constituency. Hussain secured 87690 votes, while Nikhil secured 76975 votes. Nikhil Kumaraswamy’s mother, father, and grandfather were all former legislators from this constituency, and he is also a Kannada movie actor.
- Asif (Raju) Sait from Belgaum Uttar won the election, securing 55939 votes. His nearest rival, Dr. Ravi B. Patil of the BJP, secured 50898 votes.
While Muslims form more than 30% of the electorate in at least 19 constituencies in the state, their representation in the assembly has been in double digits only four times before. Political activists like Hares Siddiqui argue that Muslims should have at least 34 representatives in the assembly, based on their population in the state. However, the low number of Muslim candidates fielded by political parties has disappointed the community.
Despite giving tickets to 16 candidates, including 11 Muslims and 5 non-Muslims, SDPI failed to secure any seats in the elections. There were high hopes that they would pose a tough competition in Narasimharaja, Pulakeshinagar, and Mangalore constituencies, but unfortunately, none of their candidates secured significant votes, and they ended up in distant third and fourth positions in these constituencies.
Despite Muslims forming a significant percentage of the state’s population, their representation in the assembly remains low, raising concerns among community leaders. It remains to be seen whether political parties will increase the number of Muslim candidates in the future to better reflect the diversity of the state’s population.
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Shaik Zakeer Hussain is the Founder and Editor of The Cognate.
