With the 2017 Uttar Pradesh
assembly elections, Muslim representation in India’s most populous state
has plummeted from 17.1% in 2012 to 5.9%.
This is equivalent to
Muslim representation about a quarter of a century ago, in 1993,
following the Babri Masjid riots of 1992 (5.9%) and less than two
percentage points higher than recorded in 1991 (4.1%) – its lowest point
– according to an IndiaSpend analysis of data from the Election
Commission of India and The Hindu Centre for Politics and Public Policy
(Gilles Verniers, Uttar Pradesh State Assembly Legislators’ dataset), a
think tank.
UP has 38.4 million Muslims–19.2% of its 200 million
people – the most of any state and third, by proportion, after Assam and
Kerala.
Of 24 Muslim members of legislative assembly (MLAs) who
won in 2017, more than half, or 14, had won from the same constituencies
before. A sixth of Muslim MLAs have represented their constituencies
for the last 15 years at least. None are women (9.9% of new MLAs).
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