Muslims account for 17.7% of Bihar’s inhabitants, spiking to greater than 40% in northern border districts, however because the Assembly election approaches, they’re laborious to identify among the many candidate lists of political events. So far, no political social gathering has introduced greater than 4 Muslim candidates for the State’s 243 Assembly constituencies, aside from the newly floated Jan Suraaj Party, which has promised to area 40 Muslim candidates and has introduced 21 to date.

This is even though the Muslim inhabitants is over 20% in 87 constituencies, making their votes a decisive consider any candidate’s electoral fortunes. However, about 75% of the State’s Muslims dwell in northern Bihar. In current years, the Muslim inhabitants within the Seemanchal or border districts of Katihar, Purnea, and Araria has gone as much as 40%, whereas Muslims are the bulk in Kishanganj district, outnumbering Hindus and accounting for over 68% of the inhabitants there.

Few seats for Muslims

Nevertheless, the ruling Janata Dal (United), contesting 101 seats, has to date given social gathering tickets to simply 4 Muslim candidates. The Opposition Rashtriya Janata Dal is but to launch its remaining checklist of candidates, however has given tickets to solely three Muslims to date: Osama Sahab, son of former MP Mohd. Shahabuddin, within the Raghunathpur constituency; Yusuf Salahuddin (Simri-Bakhtiyarpur); and Mohd. Israil Mansuri (Kanti).

Among nationwide events, the BJP has not fielded any Muslims within the 101 seats it’s contesting, whereas the Congress, which has not but formally introduced what number of seats it’s contesting, has introduced 4 Muslim candidates to date. Some Muslim leaders are questioning why Congress chief Rahul Gandhi’s requires proportional illustration don’t appear to use right here.

Among smaller events, the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) is contesting 29 seats as a part of the ruling NDA and is fielding a lone Muslim candidate, Mohd. Kalimuddin, within the Bahadurganj seat in northeastern Bihar. The different two NDA allies, the Jitan Ram Manjhi-led Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) and Upendra Kushwaha-led Rashtriya Lok Morcha, are every contesting six seats and are usually not fielding any Muslims. The Jan Suraaj Party based by former ballot strategist Prashant Kishor has introduced 116 candidates to date, of which 21 are Muslims.

Historic underrepresentation

Historically, Bihar Muslims have all the time suffered from power electoral underrepresentation. The variety of Muslim MLAs within the State Assembly has by no means crossed 10%, besides marginally in 1985. The State has solely had one Muslim Chief Minister, Abdul Ghafoor, who helmed the State authorities for lower than two years within the Seventies. Bihar has by no means had a Muslim within the Deputy Chief Minister put up, although Ghulam Sarwar and Jabir Hussain held the positions of Assembly Speaker and Legislative Council Chairman, respectively. A number of Muslim leaders resembling Abdul Bari Siddiqui, Shakil Ahmad, Mohd. Taslimuddin, and Mohd. Zama Khan have been Cabinet Ministers.

In the 17 Assembly elections held between 1952 and 2020, the State has elected solely 390 Muslim MLAs, accounting for simply 7.8% of all MLAs. The excessive level got here in 1985, when there have been 34 Muslim MLAs within the 324-strong legislature of undivided Bihar. In the final Assembly election in 2020, solely 19 Muslim MLAs have been elected to the 243-seat Assembly.

Poor and underprivileged Pasmanda Muslims have fared even worse when it comes to electoral illustration. Despite the group accounting for 73% of the State’s 2.3 crore Muslims, simply 18% of Muslim MLAs have been Pasmanda to date. In 2020, there have been simply 5 Pasmanda MLAs, 4 from the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) and one from the Rashtriya Janata Dal.

Shifting votebanks

Muslim candidates weren’t significantly profitable even when fielded within the final Assembly election in 2020. The JD(U) had 11 Muslim candidates, all of whom misplaced the ballot. The RJD had put 17 Muslim candidates within the fray, of which eight gained. Of the ten Muslim candidates fielded by the Congress, 4 had gained. The AIMIM fielded 20 Muslim candidates, of which 5 gained, although 4 of them switched loyalties to the RJD in 2022. Similarly, the Bahujan Samaj Party’s lone Muslim MLA later defected to the JD(U).

RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav used to boast that his social gathering’s key to electoral success was the mixed ‘MY’ votebank accounting for 31% of the voters (together with the 17% Muslim inhabitants and the 14% belonging to the Yadav caste), who rewarded him 1990 to 2005. His profitable system was shattered, nevertheless, when JD(U) chief Nitish Kumar carved out a brand new votebank comprising the extraordinarily backward courses (36%), juggling the caste calculus to win and maintain energy for many of the final 20 years.

Proportional illustration

“I nonetheless do hope that each one secular events like Congress and RJD would give us correct illustration as per our inhabitants, and particularly these Muslims who come from the Pasmanda group,” Pasmanda Muslim chief Ali Anwar advised The Hindu. He pointed to Mr. Gandhi’s oft-repeated slogan of “Jiski jitni aabadi, usko utna hissedari (Whoever has a better inhabitants will get a better share)”, although that was largely utilized in reference to caste-based reservation for training and jobs, and never elections.

Muslim ballot analyst Seraj Anwar shouldn’t be too optimistic. “Muslims have turn into solely vote banks for the political events as we speak. The events know effectively which method the Muslim votes will go through which constituency, so they don’t give a lot significance to candidates from the group. The Muslim candidates who win the ballot both get smaller portfolios within the Cabinet or change their political loyalty because it fits them,” he mentioned.

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