Hasan Mushrif, a six-time Nationalist Congress MLA from Kagal in Kolhapur district, joined on Saturday. Devendra Fadnavis Cabinet in Maharashtra. He is currently the only Muslim MLA to hold a post in the BJP’s Chief Minister’s Cabinet.
Of the 13 states where the BJP leads the cabinet, Danish Ansari is the only Muslim member in Uttar Pradesh but holds the minister of state post. In states led by BJP allies, only Nasyam Mohammad Farooq of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) in Andhra Pradesh and Jama Khan of the Janata Dal (United) in Bihar are in the cabinet.
Since 1960, Maharashtra has seen 70 Muslim legislators, including 36 with cabinet rank and 34 in the MoS Council of Ministers. Traditionally, the community has been given two or three berths, while seven Muslim MLAs were made ministers in successive Congress governments between 1999 and 2004.
Hasan is the younger brother of former Maharashtra Inspector General of Police (IGP) Shamsuddin Mushrif who wrote his book “Who Killed Karkare?” The 26/11 Mumbai attacks have been alleged to be part of a conspiracy by intelligence and security insiders to thwart Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) chief Hemant Karkare’s investigation into the alleged involvement of Hindu extremist groups in spreading terror. Karkare was killed in the attack.
Hassan, in the past, has been at the receiving end of BJP’s criticism for allegations of corruption in transactions related to the Kolhapur District Central Cooperative Bank (DCCB) and sugar mills linked to his family members. However, since he sided with Ajit Pawar and joined the NDA government, the criticism has lost steam.
The political representation of Muslims has been declining in the state with a maximum of 13 MLAs from the community elected in 1972, 1980 and 1999.
When the BJP and the united Shiv Sena ruled Maharashtra between 2014 and 2019, Fadnavis did not include any Muslim MLA in his cabinet.
However, after the 2019 elections and the split into Shiv Sena and NCP, the Sena’s Hasan and Abdul Sattar were inducted into the new grand coalition government. Sattar did not get a place in the cabinet this time, while Hasan managed to retain his position.
The political representation of Muslims has been declining in the state with a maximum of 13 MLAs from the community elected in 1972, 1980 and 1999. Only eight Muslims won the lowest number of MLAs in the state in the 1995 elections. While recently, 10 MLAs from the community including Sattar, Hasan of NDA and Sana Malik of NCP were elected. Assembly elections are over.
Muslims constitute about 11.5% of the state’s population and are among the few minorities with political representation in Maharashtra. Although not a Christian, Leon D’Souza got a ministerial position in the state in 1978 and Marzban Patrawala was the last minister from the Parsi community in 1993.
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