Patna,(BiharTimes): Bihar is the second state after West Bengal, which elected the highest number of Muslim MPs this time. While eight Muslims got elected from the West Bengal, which has about one-fourth population four MPs won from Bihar, where the community forms 16.5 per cent of the votes.

Jammu and Kashmir and Kerala have a fairly strong presence of the community, especially in the former, yet the number of Muslims who got elected from these two states are three each. Two Muslims got elected from Assam, where too the community has a big presence, while one each from Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Lakshdweep. 

The BJP won seven seats in Assam, three of them in the Muslim dominated constituencies.

In all 23 Muslims got elected this time which is fourth smallest since Independence. 

Not a single Muslim got elected from Uttar Pradesh, from where highest 80 MPs are elected. In 1980 nineteen Muslims got elected from the state when the total strength was 85.

Incidentally, in Bihar the BJP lost in all the four Muslim dominated constituencies whereas in UP it won all. 

While Asrar-ul-Haque of the Congress won from Kishanganj, Taslimuddin of the RJD from Araria, Tariq Anwar of the Nationalist Congress Party from Katihar and Santosh Kushwaha of the Janata Dal (United) from Purnea defeated the BJP candidates. 

In Bhagalpur, where Muslims form over 17 per cent votes the BJP candidate, Syed Shahnawaz Husain, lost by over 9,000 votes to the RJD’s Golu Mandal. 

In contrast Chaudhary Mahboob Ali Qaiser of the Lok Janshakti Party, a BJP ally, won from Khagaria, where Muslims do not form any big chunk. Qaiser, incidentally, was the former Bihar Pradesh Congress Committee chief, and crossed over to the LJP just on the eve of the election. 

In UP the saffron party won even from Rampur, where Muslims form 49.1 per cent and Moradabad, where they are 45.5 of the electorate. In both these places all the prominent non-BJP parties put up Muslim candidates while the BJP fielded Hindus.

According to the National Election Study (NES) in states where the Congress is in direct competition with the BJP, it got nearly three-fourths of the Muslim vote. On the other hand, states in which there is a presence of strong regional parties, such as Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Delhi, Assam etc. saw the overall Muslim support for Congress drop to about one-third, as the community also voted for the non-Congress alternatives.