India's ruling party has no Muslim legislator in parliament

NEW DELHI

Indian ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) no longer has any Muslim legislator in the parliament as the tenure of its Muslim legislator Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, the country's Minority Affairs Ministry, ended on Thursday.

Naqvi, 64, who was a member of the Rajya Sabha or Upper House of the parliament, resigned on Wednesday.

Now, among its 395 members in the Indian Parliament, the ruling BJP will have no Muslim legislators.

India is home to nearly about 200 million Muslims, the world's third-largest Muslim population.

Ahead of his term getting over, Naqvi had told a local news agency that his political career would continue

“I understand that my tenure in Rajya Sabha has been completed, but my political and social tenure has not yet been completed. I will continue to work with dedication and concern for society,” he said on Wednesday.

According to the Indian media, the ruling party may consider Naqvi for the post of country's vice president, the polls for which are scheduled next month.

Other than Naqvi, the term of two other Muslim legislators belonging to the BJP – M J Akbar and Syed Zafar Islam – also ended recently.

In the recent round of Rajya Sabha polls, where elections are held on nominations, the party did not nominate any Muslim from the party. In the 2014 and 2019 general elections, no Muslim legislator was elected from the saffron party.

The term of the BJP's last parliamentarian in the Lok Sabha or lower house ended in 2014. It is for the first time in the recent past that the party has no Muslim legislator in either house of the parliament.