New Delhi. This time in the Lok Sabha elections, 24 Muslim candidates won across the country, including Trinamool Congress candidate and former cricketer Yusuf Pathan from Baharampur in West Bengal and Congress candidate Rakibul Hussain from Dhubri in Assam. However, 26 Muslim candidates had won in the 17th Lok Sabha and this time (in the 18th Lok Sabha) there has been a slight decrease in this number but it is more than the number of 2014. In the year 2014, 23 Muslim candidates were elected to the lower house of the Parliament.
This year, 78 Muslim candidates were in the fray in the Lok Sabha elections, whereas in the last elections, various parties had fielded 115 Muslim candidates.
Among the Muslim candidates who won the elections this time, Rakibul Hussain’s victory from Dhubri was significant in terms of the margin of votes. Congress candidate Hussain defeated All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) supremo Badruddin Ajmal from the Dhubri Lok Sabha seat in Assam by a record margin of 10,12,476 votes. Hussain, the deputy leader of the Congress Legislative Party in the state, got 14,71,885 votes, while Ajmal, who contested the elections with the aim of winning this constituency for the fourth consecutive time, got 4,59,409 votes.
Yusuf Pathan, contesting for the first time, defeated Congress leader and his nearest rival Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury by 85,022 votes in the Baharampur Lok Sabha constituency of Murshidabad district in West Bengal.
Congress candidate Imran Masood won from Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh by a margin of 64,542 votes, while 29-year-old Samajwadi Party (SP) candidate Iqra Chaudhary from Kairana defeated BJP’s Pradeep Kumar by 69,116 votes. Samajwadi Party (SP) candidate from Ghazipur Afzal Ansari won the Ghazipur Lok Sabha seat by defeating BJP’s Paras Nath Rai. Ansari defeated his nearest rival BJP’s Paras Nath Rai by a margin of 1,24,861 votes.
Samajwadi Party’s Mohibullah won the Rampur seat by securing 4,81,503 votes, while Zia ur Rehman won in Sambhal by a margin of 1.2 lakh votes. All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi retained the Hyderabad seat. National Conference’s Aga Syed Ruhullah Mehdi won the Srinagar Lok Sabha seat.
National Conference leader Mian Altaf defeated former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti from Anantnag-Rajouri. In Ladakh, independent candidate Mohammad Hanifa won by a margin of 27,862 votes, while another independent candidate Abdul Rashid Sheikh won the Baramulla seat in Jammu and Kashmir by securing 4.7 lakh votes. In Bihar, Congress’ Tariq Anwar won the Katihar seat. Congress now has the highest number of Muslim MPs at seven, Trinamool Congress has five and Samajwadi Party has four. Indian Union Muslim League has three Muslim MPs.