It is evident that the Congress has received the votes of the backward community in large numbers and nobody can refute or deny that the Congress could garner this section's vote only because of Siddaramaiah. The Congress also did bag considerable number of minority votes too and as an answer to this, nine Muslim MLAs from Congress are making it to the Assembly.
Now, with outstanding mandate in hand, the Congress government is ready to take over and it is contemplating on the crucial issue of ministerial berth.
Intense brain storming is on in the Congress house with regard to the MLAs who will make it to the cabinet and the ministry that befits them etc. This time the Congress has bagged 121 seats, out of which 9 are Muslim candidates, 27 are backward community members, 17 Dalits, 11 ST MLAs, 2 Christians, 18 Vokkaligas, 29 Lingayats, 5 Brahmins and three are from other communities.
Naturally, the community which has greater representation will bag influential portfolios while the left over ones are given to the backward communities. The Wakf and Minority Welfare is given to Muslims without fail. All of these too witness huge lobbying.
This time, however, a situation has been created where the minorities and the backward community MLAs are asserting their rights.
If one notices, in the history of the State there has been rare instances where a Muslim candidate was given an influential portfolio. During the Janata Party rule, Abdul Nazeer Saab was made the Panchayat Raj Minister by the then Chief Minister Ramakrishna Hegde.
Abdul Nazeer Saab had not just performed exceptionally well in his responsibility but has created history in implementation of Panchayat Raj in the State. Though Nazeer Saab was considered to be a leader worth of being a Chief Minister, he was never considered to be an option. Apart from him, S M Yahyah was a leader who went on to become Education Minister.
Every time the Congress came to power, the number of Muslim candidates and winners increases but when it comes to giving high profile position in the cabinet, there is a sense of reluctance. When other community leaders are treated with neglect, their community comes out on street to raise voice against the same. But, unfortunately over so many decades, while Muslim MLAs were denied influential portfolio, the Muslim community never joined hands to fight for their rights.
If one goes through the list of winners in the state, there are 11 Muslims (Nine from Congress, two from JDS), 11 Brahmins, 36 Backward Community members, 35 Dalits, 19 from Scheduled Tribe, two Christians, three Jains, two from Vaishya community and one Kodava.
On the other hand there are 53 and 50 members from Vokkaliga and members Lingayat communities respectively, which conveniently runs up to the numbers needed to form a government.
As far as the members of these two communities are concerned, the sense ofour CM, our ministers' is strongly engraved in their minds alike, among the urban educated elite as well as the novice from the villages. This attitude or awareness among the people has helped them gain impressive political representation translating into social transformation of the communities.
Traditionally, the Muslim community has identified itself as vote bank of the Congress and historically, this community has literally been responsible for the Congress coming to power. But, if one sees the kind of responsibility and representation given to the community leaders, it is not impressive at all.
However, this time, with Siddaramaiah ascending to power, even the Muslim leaders are positive about getting better responsibilities. In accordance to this, names of some Muslims leaders like Roshan Beg, Tanveer Sait, U T Khader and Khamarul Islam are making rounds. First timers like Moideen Bava and others too are looking at the new CM with hopes and anticipation.
During Devraj Urs's tenure and during Ramakrishna Hegade's rule Muslim MLAs rose to responsible posts. Later, during Deve Gowda's rule there were five Muslims in his cabinet. S M Krishna Government had five Muslims in the cabinet along with the only woman Muslim minister so far - Nafeesa Fazal.
In Yeddyurappa led BJP government, Mumtaz Ali Khan was the Wakf minister. Barring this, the BJP government did not have any Muslim leader in the cabinet.
With the parliamentary polls round the corner, there is responsibility of showing its concern to the Minority, not just on the party but on the CM, elected ministers and lost candidates of the party too. In this regard, the Congress government will probably go ahead and give some influential posts to the Muslim MLAs just to prove a point.
However, State will have to wait and watch for week as to how the Muslim MLAs will assert their right, how the new CM will distribute the role in his cabinet and finally if the long deprived Muslim community will get its share in the cabinet or not.
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