Last Muslim MP elected from Karnataka was 20 yrs ago

BENGALURU: For a state with at least 12% Muslim population, Karnataka has sent only one Muslim MP to Lok Sabha in the last 20 years - Iqbal Ahmed Saradgi from Gulbarga in 2004 - with the three major parties not fielding many candidates. And, independents and those from smaller unrecognised parties seldom stand a chance of winning in Parliamentary elections.

Congress, BJP and JD(S) together fielded only 11 Muslim candidates in the past four elections. That is, less than 10% of the 112 candidates they collective fielded in the said period. But an analysis of individual elections shows that 2004 had four candidates, 2009 and 2014 had three each, and 2019 had only one. Of these, none is from BJP.

This year too, there is just one candidate, Congress' Bangalore Central candidate Mansoor Ali Khan, who is taking on three-time BJP MP PC Mohan.

Political scientist Muzaffar Assadi had told TOI earlier that there are three key reasons: Lack of decisive Muslim vote banks in Parliamentary constituencies, parties not grooming Muslim leaders beyond community lines, and voter polarisation.

Delimitation of constituencies, which happened in 2008, has also impacted the winnability of Muslim candidates, according to community leaders.

Even over the years, Karnataka has not elected too many Muslims as MPs. There were two in 1989, BM Mujahid from Dharwad South and CK Jaffer Sharief from Bangalore North. In the five elections between 1991 and 2004, Sharief won thrice (1991, 1998 and 1999), while Qamarul Islam won in 1996 and Saradgi won in 2004. Even in all these elections not more than five seats of Congress and JD(S) together saw Muslim candidates getting tickets.

Muslim leaders within Congress were hoping to get more than one seat this time, but the party finally settled with one, with a major chunk of the tickets going to Vokkaligas and Lingayats as is the case with the NDA.

Party members argue that when voting happens on caste lines, candidates need to be picked based on that, while pointing out that Congress has been fielding candidates from the community and is the only party this time to give a ticket to a Muslim.

Mansoor Ali Khan, who has begun campaigning in Bangalore Central, while agreeing that Muslims are under-represented across the country, expressed confidence that he could break the 20-year drought in Karnataka.

"I won't indulge in any mudslinging but I think people of the constituency are aware of the misgovernance in the last 15 years and there is anti-incumbency. And as far as not enough Muslims being fielded, you would agree that the whole country is polarised and the demography in a Parliamentary constituency is different from assembly elections. I'm hopeful that a time will come when voting is done based on a candidate's merit and not her/his caste and community, which is when we can have fair representation of all communities," Khan told TOI.