The number of Muslim MLAs in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly has dropped from 11 in 2009 to just 9 in the 2014 elections whose results were declared on Sunday.
With the entry of the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen, it was a 6-cornered contest, especially in the constituencies of Maharashtra with high Muslim concentration.
Of the 65 Muslim candidates, representing six major parties, who were in the fray, only 9 won the elections.
The major parties had fielded 19 Muslims in the 2009 Assembly elections and of them, 11 had won. However, the multi-cornered contest this time went against the Muslim candidates, and only 9 were elected to the Maharashtra Assembly.
The Muslims MLAs who got elected are:
Aslam Shaikh (Malad West) Khan Mohd Arif (Chandivali) Shaiked Aasif Shaikh Rashid (Malegaon Central) Amin Patel (Mumbadevi) Abdul Sattar Abdul Nabi (Sillod) (all of the Congress) Syed Imtiaz Jalil (Aurangabad Central) Advocate Waris Yusuf Pathan (Byculla) (both of the MIM) Abu Asim Azmi (Mankhurd Shivaji Nagar) (Samajwadi Party) Mushrif Hasan Miyalal (Kagal) (NCP)
In the 2009 elections, the Congress had five Muslim MLAs, the Samajwadi Party had three, the NCP had two and the Jan Surajya Shakti had one. (INN)