Tag Archives: Arif Aqueel – First Muslim Minister – Madhya Pradesh After 15 Years

After 33 years, the Madhya Pradesh Assembly has two Muslim legislators

MADHYA PRADESH:

Arif Aqueel and Arif Masood

India’s first ‘Happiness Minister’ among 13 BJP Ministers who lost in the state elections.

Bhopal :

After 33 years, the Madhya Pradesh Assembly has two Muslim legislators — Arif Aqueel and Arif Masood. Since 1998, Aqueel was the lone Muslim MLA in the 230-member legislative Assembly, winning from Bhopal North. In the recently held state polls, he has been joined by Masood, who represents Bhopal Madhya. Both are Congress candidates.

In the 2018 Assembly elections, Aqueel defeated BJP’s Fatima Rasool with a margin of 35,000 votes, while Masood won from Bhopal Madhya constituency by defeating BJP’s Surendranath Singh with a margin of 15,000 votes.  

There were a total of four Muslim candidates in the fray from the BJP and the Congress. Two women and two men. Congress had given ticket to three Muslim leaders including a women Masarrat Shahid from Sironj seat who failed to win, while BJP only gave a ticket to only one. The Muslim population in the state is estimated at 8-9% of the total population.

Happiness Minister ‘Unhappy’

Tuesday turned out to be unhappy for Madhya Pradesh’s Minister for Happiness, Lal Singh Arya, who was one of the 13 BJP Ministers who lost the Assembly elections.

Arya was the first Minister of Madhya Pradesh’s Happiness Ministry, and also the country’s first, modelled on the national happiness index used by Bhutan.

The Assembly elections result were declared on December 11, and ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) secured 109 seats out of 230 seats, while Congress secured 114, Samajwadi Party 1, Bahujan Samaj Party 2 and four independents.

With the support of other parties and independent MLAs, Congress staked claim to form the government before the Governor Anandiben Patel on Wednesday afternoon.

In a neck-and-neck fight between Congress and BJP, 13 out of 20 sitting ministers of BJP failed to retain their seats. Some top ministers who lost are Minister of Happiness Lal Singh Arya, Higher Education Minister Jaibhan Singh Pawaiya, Revenue Minister Umashankar Gupta, Medical Education Minister Sharad Jain, Finance Minister Jayant Malaiya, Health Minister Rustam Singh, School and Technical Education Minister Deepak Joshi,

In addition, Animal Husbandry Minister Antar Singh Arya, Women and Child Development Minister Archana Chitnis, Backward Class and Minority Welfare Minister Lalita Yadav, New and Renewable Energy Minister Narayan Singh Kushwaha and Food, Civil Supply Minister Om Praksh Dhurwey and state minister Balkrishna Patidar also lost their seats.

Most of these minister lost with a margin of 10,000 votes while New and Renewable Energy Minister Narayan Singh Kushwaha and Finance Minister Jayant Malaiya lost with a margin of only 200 to 300 votes.

After losing the Gohad seat, an unhappy Happiness Minister blamed Chief Minister Shivraj Chouhan for his defeat. He said, “I should not have lost from the seat where I had given pace to the development but CM’s ‘koi mai ka lal reservation kahatam nahi kar sakta’ ( no one can ever endreservation) remark had played a key role in losing my seat.”

Besides BJP, Congress stalwart and leader of opposition in the Assembly Ajay Singh also lost th party’s traditional seat Churhat with a margin of 6,000 votes.

CM Chouhan registered a comfortable victory from his traditional seat, Budhni, by defeating Congress’s heavyweight leader Arun Yadav. But the margin of victory was narrower this time by 20,000 votes.

Taking full responsibility for the defeat, Chouhan said, “I’m the one who is fully responsible for the defeat because we failed to reach out to the rural voters.”

He further said, “I’m sure the Congress will fulfill what it has promised in its manifesto. Aaj se ham chowkidar ke bhumika nibhayenge (from today, we will play the role of watchmanand BJP will play a constructive role of opposition.”

source: http://www.newsclick.com / NEWSclick / Home / Home / Kashif Kakvi / December 13th, 2018

How Muslim MLA numbers have jumped

The number of Muslim MLAs in the Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh Assemblies are now two and one, up from one and none respectively in the 2013 Houses.

The big change is in Rajasthan, where the number of Muslim MLAs has gone up to eight from just two in the 2013 House.
The big change is in Rajasthan, where the number of Muslim MLAs has gone up to eight from just two in the 2013 House.

The number of Muslim MLAs in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Chhattisgarh jumped from three after the 2013 elections to 11 Tuesday as the Congress swept the BJP out of power in the three heartland states. In all, 19 Muslims were elected in the five states that went to polls. The big change is in Rajasthan, where the number of Muslim MLAs has gone up to eight from just two in the 2013 House. The number of Muslim MLAs in the Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh Assemblies are now two and one, up from one and none respectively in the 2013 Houses.

RAJASTHAN
The Congress fielded 15 Muslim candidates, seven of whom won. One Muslim candidate won on a BSP ticket. The BJP fielded only one Muslim candidate, Yoonus Khan, against Sachin Pilot in Tonk, who lost.

In Pokaran, Shale Mohammad of the Congress edged out the BJP’s Mahant Pratap Puri — the chief priest of the Taratara sect in Barmer, who models himself on UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath — by just 872 votes.

MADHYA PRADESH
After a decade, the House will have more than one Muslim member. Both MLAs in the new Assembly belong to the Congress. Arif Aqueel has represented the Muslim-dominated Bhopal (North) seat six times since the 1990s, and was the only Muslim in the Assemblies elected in 2008 and 2013.

The other Muslim member in the 2018 House is Arif Masood from Bhopal (Central).

The only Muslim candidate fielded by the BJP in 2018 was former Congress Minister Rasool Ahmed Siddique’s daughter Fatima, who lost to Aqueel.

CHHATTISGARH
In a state where Muslims are 2% of the population, the Congress fielded two candidates from the community, and the BJP fielded none. One of the Congress candidates, Mohammad Akbar, won the Kawardha seat with the biggest margin in the state: 59,284. The Congress’s other Muslim candidate, Badruddin Qureshi, lost at Vaishali Nagar.

TELANGANA
Parties in Telangana fielded 26 Muslim candidates at the 119 seats. Eight — seven from the All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul Muslimeen (AIMIM) and one from the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) — won.

The AIMIM fielded eight Muslims; only the one at Rajendranagar — Mirza Rahmat Baig — lost, coming in behind the candidates of the TRS and TDP.

The BJP fielded one Muslim, Shehazadi Syed, who lost to Akbaruddin Owaisi of the AIMIM at Chandrayangutta. The Congress fielded 9 Muslims and the TDP one; all lost. The TRS fielded eight Muslim candidates; Shakil Aamir Mohammed won in Bodhan.

source: http://www.indianexpress.com / The Indian Express / Home> Explained / by Express News Service – Bhopal, Hyderabad, Jaipur, New Delhi, Raipur / December 14th, 2018

Madhya Pradesh: Kamal Nath expands Cabinet, state gets first Muslim minister in 15 years

Bhopal, MADHYA PRADESH :

The swearing-in ceremony began at Raj Bhavan in Bhopal at 3 pm. Governor Anandiben Patel administered the oath to the newly inducted ministers. In the recently held assembly elections, Congress managed to win 114 seats in 231-member state assembly.

In the recently held assembly elections, Congress managed to win 114 seats in 231-member state assembly. (Photo-ANI)
In the recently held assembly elections, Congress managed to win 114 seats in 231-member state assembly. (Photo-ANI)

Digvijay Singh’s son Jaivardhan Singh was among the 28 MLAs who were sworn in as the cabinet minister in Madhya Pradesh on Tuesday. Governor Anandiben Patel administered the oath to the new ministers at the Raj Bhavan in Bhopal.

Sajjan Singh Verma, Vijayalaxmi Sadho, Hukum Singh Karada, Govind Singh Rajput, Bala Bachchan, Pradeep Jayaswal, Imarti Devi were among those sworn in as ministers. Arif Aqueel was the lone Muslim face in the new council of ministers. Aqueel, MLA from Bhopal North, is the first Muslim minister in the state after 15 years.

The names of the ministers were cleared after Chief Minister Kamal Nath met Congress chief Rahul Gandhi over the weekend.

Congress’ chief whip in Lok Sabha, Jyotiraditya Scindia, former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Digvijaya Singh and ex-state Congress chief, Arun Yadav, also attended the meeting.

source: http://www.indianexpress.com / The Indian Express / Home> India / by Express Web Desk / New Delhi / December 25th, 2018