West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Assam, Kerala, and Puducherry polls show the Muslim MLA count has slipped from 112 in 2021 to 107 out of 823 seats this time
NEW DELHI — The representation of Muslim lawmakers just got a little thinner.
A new report that tracked the latest round of assembly elections in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Assam, Kerala, and Puducherry shows the Muslim MLA count has slipped from 112 in 2021 to 107 out of 823 seats this time.
The Frontline report puts Muslim legislators at roughly 13% of these five assemblies combined — a full percentage point below the community’s 14.2% share of the country’s population per the 2011 Census.
The drop was sharpest in the East and Northeast. West Bengal’s 294-member House went from 42 Muslim MLAs to 40, including the May 21 re-poll seat. Assam saw the steepest slide: 31 Muslim MLAs in the last assembly, down to 22 in the new 126-member House.
South Bucks the Trend
The South pushed back against the trend. Kerala added three, moving from 32 to 35 Muslim MLAs in its 140-member assembly. Tamil Nadu nudged up from six to nine in a House of 234. Puducherry stayed flat, with one Muslim MLA in its 30-member assembly — same as last term.
A Long-running Gap
The Frontline report places this in a wider frame: Muslims have been under-represented in legislatures since 1952. The report ties the post-2014 period under the BJP’s central rule to an even steeper fall.
Census data sketches the backdrop. In 1941, undivided India had a population of 31.86 crore — 66% Hindu, 24% Muslim. After Partition, the 1951 Census recorded 36.10 crore people, with Hindus at 84% and Muslims at 10%. By 2011, India counted 121.09 crore citizens: 79.8% Hindu, 14.2% Muslim.
Yet the legislature has rarely mirrored that share. The first Lok Sabha in 1952 had 25 Muslim MPs — 5.11% of 489 seats. In 1957, it was 23, or 4.66%. The high-water marks came in 1980 with 49 Muslim MPs (9.04%) and 1984 with 45 (8.3%). Today’s Lok Sabha has 24, just 4.42% of the House.
Political analyst Iqbal A. Ansari, in Political Representation of Muslims in India, 1952-2004, pins much of the gap on candidate selection. Congress fielded only 21 Muslims among 479 candidates in 1952. Ansari notes that the first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, flagged the issue, reminding party managers of promises to minorities, but it never became a serious internal debate. That template stuck: parties tend to field Muslim candidates only in constituencies with large Muslim populations.
The State-level Picture
The pattern repeats in the states, even where Muslim populations are sizeable. Citing Mohammed Abdul Mannan’s At the Bottom of the Ladder: State of Indian Muslims, the report says Uttar Pradesh has had just 628 Muslim MLAs out of 7,389 legislators till 2022 — 8.49% — against a 15.5% population share. Bihar: 326 of 5,146 legislators, or 6.3%, versus 13.4% of the population.
Gujarat stands out for its gap. Till 2017, only 39 of 2,296 MLAs were Muslim — 1.69% — while Muslims make up 8.6% of the state.
Mirza Asmer Beg, Professor in the Department of Political Science at Aligarh Muslim University, told Frontline that the BJP’s rise and majoritarian politics have “changed the situation drastically.” The BJP fields no Muslim candidates, he said, and other parties grow wary of doing so for fear of being tagged with “minority appeasement.” Polarisation, he added, has dented Muslim candidates’ winnability.
Samajwadi Party’s Rajya Sabha MP Javed Ali Khan links the slide directly to Hindutva politics, pointing to the post-Babri Masjid demolition period. He cited the 1993 Madhya Pradesh polls, when not a single Muslim MLA was elected.
Afroz Alam, professor of political science at Maulana Azad National Urdu University, argued that parties preach secularism but switch to “winnability” math at the ticket distribution time. “Winnability is sometimes a polite word for systemic exclusion,” he said. “Parties often want Muslim votes without producing Muslim leadership. This reduces Muslims to voters, not partners in power.”
Assam as a Case Study
The BJP won 92 of 126 seats in Assam but fielded zero Muslim candidates. Congress took 19 seats; 18 went to Muslim candidates. BJP leaders later derided Congress as a “Muslim League,” the report notes.
The BJP-era Tally
Frontline charts a national decline during the BJP’s years at the Centre: around 339 Muslim MLAs across state assemblies in 2013, down to roughly 260 after the latest elections.
The state-by-state breakdown is stark:
• Uttar Pradesh: 63 → 31
• West Bengal: 59 → 40
• Bihar: 19 → 11
• Rajasthan: 11 → 6
• Madhya Pradesh: 2 Muslim MLAs in a 230-member House
• Chhattisgarh: 0 in 90 seats
• Maharashtra: 10
• Karnataka: 9
• Telangana: 7, all from AIMIM
Across India, Muslim MLAs make up about 6% of all state legislators.
What’s Driving the Slide?
Beyond ticket distribution, the report flags structural factors: delimitation diluting Muslim vote concentration, reservation of Muslim-heavy seats for SC/ST candidates, and counter-polarisation of majority votes.
Beg calls it the “invisibilisation of the community in the crucial lawmaking bodies.” Javed Ali Khan says it’s not just about numbers — it signals broader discrimination that touches welfare schemes and institutions. Alam warns of long-term alienation: “When a community is under-represented, its concerns are heard less directly in lawmaking, particularly concerning education, security, discrimination, employment, housing and welfare.”
His closing line lands the point: “Democracy does not collapse only when people lose their vote. It also weakens when people begin to feel that their voice has no face in power.”
Key Figures
• Five states/UT total MLAs: 823
• Muslim MLAs now: 107, down from 112 in 2021
• Current share: 13% vs 14.2% population share
• West Bengal: 42 → 40 of 294
• Assam: 31 → 22 of 126
• Kerala: 32 → 35 of 140
• Tamil Nadu: 6 → 9 of 234
• Puducherry: 1 of 30, unchanged
• Current Lok Sabha: 24 Muslim MPs, 4.42%
• All-India Muslim MLAs: 339 in 2013 → 260 now, about 6% of total
