Seven of nine MLAs from minority community re-elected from seats considered Congress bastions; Ramanagara MLA Iqbal Hussain and Belgaum Uttar MLA Asif Sait first-time legislators
The representation of Muslims in the 16th Karnataka Assembly saw a slight increase as nine candidates from the minority community were elected to the 224-member House compared to seven in 2018. All the Muslim MLAs are from the Congress and were among the 15 candidates from the minority community that the party fielded. One Christian MLA — K J George of the Congress — was also elected.
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Muslims form around 13% of the state population. With nine representatives, their share in the number of seats in the state legislature is now 4.01%. In recent years, the maximum number of MLA seats won by representatives of the community was in 2013, when 11 MLAs — nine of the Congress and two of the Janata Dal (Secular) — got elected.
Since last year, a spate of controversies around the Muslim community — over wearing hijab in educational institutions, public calls to prayer (azan) over loudspeakers, sale of halal meat, calls for an economic boycott of Muslims, and bans on them from selling wares during temple fairs in some places — rocked the state.
Seven of the nine Muslim MLAs were re-elected from constituencies considered Congress bastions. B Z Zameer Ahmed Khan was elected for the sixth time from the Chamaraja Assembly constituency in Bengaluru. The first three of his six wins had come as a Janata Dal (Secular) candidate. He defeated retired IPS officer and former Bengaluru City police commissioner Bhaskar Rao by 53,983 votes. Rao, who had quit the police service to join the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), was inducted into the BJP in the run-up to the polls.
U T Khader who was the Congress’s deputy Leader of the Opposition (LoP) during the previous BJP government won from Mangalore by 22,977 votes; former minister Tanveer Sait won the Narasimharaja seat in Mysuru city by 31,091 votes; and lone Muslim woman MLA Kaneez Fathima won from Gulbarga by 2,979 votes.
Iqbal Hussain, who defeated JD(S) candidate Nikhil Kumaraswamy — the son of former CM H D Kumaraswamy — will enter the Legislative Assembly for the first time. Hussain defeated the actor-turned-politician by 10,846 votes in Ramanagara.
The other Muslim winners are Asif Sait who won from Belgaum Uttar for the first time, Rizwan Arshad (second time, from Shivajinagar), N A Haris (fourth time, from Shanti Nagar) and Rahim Khan (third time, from Bidar).
None of the 23 Muslim candidates fielded by the JD(S) won. The party had appointed former Congress MLC C M Ibrahim as party president months ahead of the state elections in a gesture to the Muslim community. The BJP list did not feature any Muslim or Christian candidates.
The highest tally of Muslim representatives in the state was 16 in 1978, while the lowest was two in the following elections held in 1983.
Muslim representation in Karnataka Assembly
2023
Total: 9 (Congress: 9)
2018
Total: 7 (Congress: 7)
2013
Total: 11 (Congress: 9; JD(S): 2)
2008
Total: 8 (Congress: 7; JD(S): 1)
2004
Total: 5 (Congress: 3; JD(S): 2)
First published on: 16-05-2023 at 20:20 IST
