Karnataka Deputy CM Should Be Muslim: Waqf Board Chief

Karnataka Waqf board chief Shafi Sadi on Sunday demanded that the post of Karnataka's deputy chief minister should be given to winning candidates from Muslim community.

"Out of 224 constituencies, Muslim candidates contested the election in 15 constituencies. 9 of them won. Apart from that, in 72 constituencies, the Congress won because of the Muslims support. We did campaign and awareness in all the mosques to vote for the Congress party," said Shafi Shaadi.

"Muslims played crucial role in the Congress victory. In return, we want a Muslim deputy chief minister and five important ministers posts like Home, Revenue, and Education. We held an emergency meeting in the Sunni Ulma board office to ensure all these are implemented," he added.

"In 1999, when S.M. Krishna was the Chief Minister from the Congress, he gave ministerial posts to five MLAs from the Muslim community. So we expect, in this government too, five Muslim leaders will be given ministerial posts and one DCM post," he said.

"Currently, nine Muslim MLAs have been elected. Let the Congress party decide who is suitable for the post of DCM," Waqf board chief said.

"In old Mysore, many Muslim leaders joined the JDS party. However, 88 per cent of the Muslims voted for the Congress party. Muslims were afraid of issues like hijab. In that context, the Muslim community voted for the grand old party," said Waqf Board President Shafi Shaadi.

Nine Muslim candidates, all from the Congress, emerged victorious in the Karnataka Assembly polls.

The consolidation of Muslim votes, which make up nearly 13 per cent of the state's electorate, seems to have worked in favour of the Congress. The party has promised to restore a four per cent quota for Muslims, which the erstwhile BJP government scrapped.

Notably, these were the first Assembly elections in the state since the controversy over hijab and the central government imposed a five-year ban on the Islamist organisation Popular Front of India (PFI).

The Congress fileded15 Muslim candidates and nine of them emerged victorious. The JDS fielded 23 Muslim candidates, but none could secure a victory.

Asaduddin Owaisi's AIMIM contested two seats and secured only 0.02 per cent of the votes polled. The SDPI - the political outfit of PFI - met a similar fate as none of its 16 candidates could open their accounts.