Why in news ?
Only 24 Muslims were elected to the Lok Sabha this year, two less than in 2019. Of the 24, 21 MPs are from parties in the Opposition INDIA bloc — Congress had nine Muslim MPs, followed by the Trinamool Congress (TMC) with five, the Samajwadi Party (SP) with four, the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) with two, and the National Conference (NC) with one.
In the eighteenth LS;
Unaffiliated AIMIM boasts one Muslim MP (Asaduddin Owaisi himself), and there are also two Muslims who won as independent (Engineer Rashid from Baramulla, and Mohammad Haneefa from Ladakh). The ruling NDA does not have a single Muslim MP.
Muslims now account for only 4.42% of Lok Sabha’s total strength (see Chart 1), the second lowest share of all time. After a record 49 Muslim MPs (9.04% of the House) were elected in 1980, and 45 Muslim MPs (8.3% of the House) were elected in 1984, the number of Muslims in Lok Sabha has never crossed 40. In the last three Lok Sabha elections, the proportion of Muslim MPs has dropped below 5%, despite the share of Muslims in the overall population standing at 14%, as per the 2011 Census.
Among the major parties, there were fewer Muslims in the fray this year compared to in the 2019 and 2014 Lok Sabha polls — 11 major parties fielded a total of 82 Muslim candidates, of whom 16 won (see Chart 2). In 2019, these parties had fielded 115 with 16 emerging as winners.
As per 2011 Census data, there are 65 Lok Sabha constituencies where Muslims account for at least 25% of the total population, including 14 constituencies where they account for at least half the population. Lakshadweep has the highest proportion of Muslims (96.58%).
In 2019 and 2024, the BJP won the most seats in these 65 constituencies at 25 and 20 respectively (see Chart 3). The Congress won 12 such seats in 2019, and 13 in 2024, followed by the TMC at 10 and 12, and the SP at 3 and 8.