Muslim Contested Candidates for General Elections 2009

By Aariz Mohammed,

Center for Minorities Empowerment, Hyderabad. AP.

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There are 127 Parliamentary Constituencies in the country with more than 20% Muslim voters. Majority of them are in North Indian States of UP, WB, Bihar, Assam, J&K, One ST reserved Constituency is with complete Muslim Population ie., Lakshadweep. In South India Kerala have 10, Andhra Pradesh 4, Maharashtra 8, Tamilnadu 2 and Karnataka 2 Constituencies. All the other states have considerably less no of voters and scattered throughout the country. Most of the Muslims live in Urban areas with meager basic facilities and all the other ill feed amenities as referred in the Sachar Committee Report. The Delimitation Commission which finished its job after Sachar findings failed look into the issue of Reserving Muslim populated areas. With all these limitations Muslim play strategic role in the 15th Loksabha Elections. The present Article finds it with the available data.

Poling Patren in the post Emergency era indicate that Muslims always voted for better collations to facilitate Social Engineering. This appears in the emergence of Caste Parties / Regional Parties in the post ‘Mandal’ era to power. Muslims supported these parties to power but could not get their due share in return as there is a strong lacuna of Community leadership. Community failed to evolve strong leadership in these 25 years period of Regional / Caste Party Political rule in more than half of the States. The Socio-Political space was exceptionally used by the Fundamentalist groups and facilitated their rule in 90s. The performance of Local parties and their tie-up with Cultural Terrorism made them shift back to Congress in 2004 and the agenda of giving strength to Congress is realized in the 15th Loksabha elections but with a strong message.

A significant difference in the voting patren of Muslims is observed in the present election. They voted against Congress where the party is stronger and they elected Congresy Muslims from the States where Regional / Caste / left parties are in power They didn’t even hesitate to vote for pro-rightwing in some states with a caution. In one or two cases their voting resulted in the election of Fundamentalist party Candidates. Sitting Ministers both at State and Central were defeated in all seats. For Example in AP, congress lost 14 contested State Ministers and the Party lost its only one Muslim MP Candidate from Hindupur to TDP as the result of denying the seat to the sitting Congresy MP Janab Nizamuddin. State PCC President, acting Speaker and the Minister for Minorities Welfare Janab Shabbier Ali lost MLA seats in Nizamabad district. Sitting Minister Janab AR Antulay lost in Maharashtra, Sitting Minister Dr. Shakeel Ahmad lost in Bihar, none of the Muslim Candidates contested with Congress ticket got elected from Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, and Rajasthan. Where as Congresy Muslims got elected from UP, Tamilnadu, West Bengal. As mentioned above sitting Minister in Bihar defeated while one congress candidate won the election like wise in Kerala also Congress got one seat. In West Bengal Muslims voted to AITC as an alternative to Left and elected 3 candidates from Congress. The Awareness campaign on Sachar report in Bengal played a key role other than Trinamool Phenomena among Muslims.

A strong message from the community to the Ruling political parties was given if they could read it. Politics of Congress appeasement, the game of Fundamentalist politics with Regional / Caste Parties were cognized by the Common Muslim voter across the states and they could reduce the voting share of Fundamentalist Parties. Fire was ignited in Left rule States by the community as there is a practical contradiction in policies, politics and performance of Left. The counting of votes Table wise and round wise unveils this.

From the Parties

There are 768 Candidates in Total from Muslim Community Contested the General Elections 2009 on tickets of 104 Political Parties from 280 Constituencies. 30 of them Elected to the 15th Loksabha, while more than two Muslims contested from 488 Constituencies. 51 parties have given tickets to one Muslim Candidates and some of them are single candidate parties like AIMIM. 16 Parties have given 2 tickets, 9 Parties – 3, 7 Parties – 4, 2 Parties – 5, 5 parties – 6, 2 Parties – 7, PECP have given 8 tickets, NELU and RJD gave – 9, ANC – 10, NLHP -11, LJP and MUL gave 14 each, AUDF gave 15 out of them Two candidates contested from Two Constituencies and only one got elected, INC and SP gave 31 tickets each, BSP gave 63 where as 355 Candidates Contested Independently. One Candidate elected from AIMIM, AUDF, BJP, CPM, DMP, JD[U] and MUL -2, AITC and JKN got 3 each,4 elected from BSP and 10 from INC while Hasan Khan from Ladhak got elected Independently.

Twelve Muslims contested with INC ticket, 4 with BSP ticket, 3 each with AITC and JKN, 2 with MUL and One from JD[U] and AUDF got elected other AIMIM. CPM could send Only one Muslim MP and DMK has given ticket to MUL Candidate in Vellore with understanding and BJP has its show-boy Muslim MP in present Lokshaba.

The Contest

Among the 280 Constituencies Single Muslim candidate contested constituencies are 100. From 61Constituenies 2 candidates contested, 3 Candidates contested from 49 Places, 4 from 21, 5 from 19 places, 6 from 14 places, 7 from 4 places, Eight from Moradabad, 9 from Barapeta and Bidar, 10 from Aurangabad, Chandni Chowk, Kishanganj, Ponnani, 12 from Baramulla, Srinagar, Sultanpur While 13 contested from Anantnag and 14 from Hyderabad. Different Variables responsible for contesting More than one Muslim candidate in other than J&K has to be studied in accordance with the voter strength of the Community along with the Issues influenced the whole election process. The case of Janab HASSAN KHAN from Ladakh and ASADUDDIN OWAISI from Hyderabad are noteworthy. First one fought with 2 parties and two Independents where as the later fought with 22 contestants with 12 Independents, BJP, INC, BSP ABJS JD[S], PRAP, PPOI, TPPP and TDP which a collation of TRS. All most all the political Parties in the State of Andhra Pradesh with an expectation of Congress tried their best to defeat AIMIM Candidate and lost.

Age and Gender

Out of the 768 Muslim Candidates 41 are Women. Mohataruma Tabassum Begum from Kairana aged 39, Mohataruma Kaisa Jahan from Sitapur aged 35, Mohataruma Mausam Noor a Law Graduate from Maldaha Uttar aged 27 were elected to the House and the remaining 38 lost. It is interesting to note that three Muslim Men and Four Women Contested the Elections under SC Category and lost. How their nominations are accepted by the authorities is a Legal matter as SC status could not be given to Muslims as per the Definition of ‘SC’ in clause 3of Article 341. How they could able to get the SC certificate is also a matter of Litigation. There are 8 ‘ST’ Candidates from Muslims and Janab Muhammed Hamdulla Sayeed A.B aged 26, Son of former Minister PM Sayed is the youngest MP from the community and a ‘ST’ reserved candidate as well. There are 7 MPs considered to be young with less than 45 years as the life expectancy in India has gone up to 74 years. Total 376 Male and 34 Female Candidates less than 45 years age contested these elections from the community. Demographically Muslims are the youngest with considerably higher share of youth population of Indian and remain till 2065.

Power & Policy

It is time to provide Equal Opportunity and Social Justices which are being denied to Muslims for the past 60 years not in number but with policy implementation. Out of 30 elected Lok Sabha MPs only five Muslims have found a place in the Ministry. Ghulam Nabi Azad – Minister for Health and Family Welfare of Congress and Farooq Abdullah of National Conference – Renewable Energy are Cabinet Ministers. Salman Khursheed – Minorities Affairs and Company Affairs from Congress are Ministers of State with Independent Charge while E Ahamed – Railways of IUML and Sultan Ahmed – Tourism of TMC are Ministers of State out of the 79+ 1 Ministers. The unhappy review of 15 point programme on 6th May 2009 and the gloomy approach to Sachar Report and performance of State Agencies on various issues of Muslims were hunting the PM.

The Course

The Pressure from the community has to be exerted on Government time and again for the tabulation and Implementation of Justice Raganath Misra Commission Report with an alternative demand of Special Component Plan to Muslims in accordance with Scheduled Caste Sub-Plan in nest four years. Mean while community should prepare itself to send more and more number of its representatives to all the Legislative bodies in the coming elections.

Performance of Elected Muslim Candidates

                                            
*MC – Muslim Candidates Contested in the Constituency. 

Contested Muslim Candidates for 15^th Loksabsha