Six-time Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) MLA Hasan Mushrif, the representative from Kagal in Kolhapur district, on Saturday, was inducted into the Devendra Fadnavis Cabinet in Maharashtra. He is the only Muslim MLA at the moment to have a Cabinet rank under a BJP Chief Minister. In the 13 states where the BJP leads the Cabinets, Danish Ansari in Uttar Pradesh is the lone Muslim member but with a Minister of State rank. In states led by the BJP’s allies, only Nasyam Mohammed Farooq of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) in Andhra Pradesh and Zama Khan of the Janata Dal (United) in Bihar hold Cabinet ranks. Since 1960, Maharashtra has seen 70 Muslim MLAs, including 36 with Cabinet ranks and 34 MoS, inducted into the Council of Ministers. While traditionally, the community has been given two or three berths, as many as seven Muslim MLAs were made ministers under successive Congress governments between 1999 and 2004. Hasan is the younger brother of former Maharashtra Inspector General of Police (IGP) Shamshuddin Mushrif who in his book “Who Killed Karkare?” alleged that the 26/11 Mumbai attacks were part of a conspiracy orchestrated by individuals within the intelligence and security set-up to stop Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) chief Hemant Karkare’s probe into the alleged involvement of Hindu extremist groups in spreading terror. Karkare was killed in the attacks. Hasan, in the past, has been at the receiving end of criticism from the BJP, which has accused him 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. Fadnavis did not include any Muslim MLA in his Cabinet when the BJP and the united Shiv Sena ruled Maharashtra between 2014 and 2019. However, post the 2019 elections and following splits in the Shiv Sena and the NCP, Hasan and Abdul Sattar of the Sena found a place in the new Mahayuti government. While Sattar failed to manage a Cabinet berth this time, Hasan managed to retain his position. Political representation of Muslims has been on the decline in the state with the maximum number of legislators from the community, 13, elected in 1972, 1980 and 1999. The 1995 elections saw only eight Muslim MLAs, the lowest-ever in the state, win while 10 legislators from the community, including three of the NDA — Sattar, Hasan and Sana Malik of the NCP — were elected in the recently concluded Assembly polls. Muslims make up around 11.5% of the state’s population and are among the few minorities to have found political representation in Maharashtra. While no Christian, since Leon D’Souza in 1978 has got a ministerial berth in the state, Marzban Patrawala in 1993 was the last minister from the Parsi community.
