Bengal: Fewer Muslims elected, variety of girls MLAs similar

While the variety of girls MLAs within the Assembly remained unchanged following the Assembly elections, Muslim illustration within the legislature dropped in comparison with 2016.
Of the 292 seats for which ends up have been declared, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) bagged 213 whereas the BJP managed to win 77 seats. One seat went to the Indian Secular Front (ISF) whereas an unbiased candidate gained one constituency.
While the outgoing Assembly had 59 Muslim legislators — 32 have been from the TMC, the Congress had 18 and the Left 9 — the subsequent Assembly may have 44 Muslim MLAs, of whom 43 are from the TMC and one from the ISF.
Some of the distinguished Muslim legislators within the new Assembly are Firhad Hakim, Javed Khan, Idris Ali, Humayun Kabir, Saokat Molla, Siddiqullah Chowdhury and the ISF’s Nawshad Siddique.
“The likely reason for the drop is that while more Muslim candidates from TMC won, none did from the Congress or Left. In seats in Malda and Murshidabad districts, the BJP too won some seats by vote division where they gave Hindu candidates,” mentioned Mohammed Reyaz, an assistant professor within the journalism division of Aliah University.
According to observers, this time the Muslim votes have been consolidated behind the TMC. The celebration gained 26 seats in Malda and Murshidabad on the expense of the Congress and Left. It additionally held on to its vote share within the Muslim-dominated areas of south Bengal.
Meanwhile, the variety of girls MLAs remained unchanged at 40. In the 2016 Assembly polls, 29 girls candidates from the TMC have been elected, whereas the Congress had 4 girls MLAs. The Left had six such legislators and the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) one. This time, the TMC has 33 girls MLAs and the remainder are from the BJP.
Among the distinguished girls legislators are the TMC’s Shashi Panja, Nayana Bandyopadhyay, Ratna Chatterjee, June Maliah, Lovely Moitra and the BJP’s Agnimitra Paul, Tapasi Mondal, and Chandana Bauri.
“We are grateful to the mothers and sisters of Bengal for giving us such a huge mandate… also grateful to my minority brothers for supporting us. This is a victory of Bengal,” Mamata Banerjee mentioned on Sunday.