Seven out of the 119 legislators are Muslims, making them 5.8 percent of the Assembly. However, none of them are from the Congress.
Published Jun 15, 2025 | 2:41 PM ⚊ Updated Jun 15, 2025 | 2:41 PM
Fulfilling a key election promise made by the Congress during the 2023 Telangana Assembly polls, the state government successfully conducted what it hails as India’s largest socioeconomic survey.
Synopsis: The Congress fielded four Muslim candidates in the Assembly polls, and all lost, practically ending the possibility of a Muslim minister in the Revanth Reddy Cabinet.
“Jitni Aabaadi, Utni Haq” — as Congress leader Rahul Gandhi often reiterates, representation should be proportional to population.
But in Telangana, where Muslims make up over 12 percent of the state’s population, the 15-member Cabinet does not have a single representative from a minority community. This stands in sharp contrast to the Congress’s renewed push for social justice, a plank on which it championed Backward Classes, Scheduled Caste, and Scheduled Tribe representation while forming the government.
The omission is more glaring when viewed through the lens of Congress’s socioeconomic survey — popularly known as the caste census — which revealed that Muslims number over 42 lakh in the state. Yet, the party has no elected Muslim MLA or MLC. Incidentally, the Congress had fielded four Muslim candidates. All of them lost.
Now, following the death of BRS MLA Chaganti Gopinath, the Jubilee Hills by-election offers the party a narrow window. If a Muslim candidate is fielded and wins, it could pave the way for long-awaited representation. But with only three Cabinet berths left and growing pressure from other groups within the party, the road ahead is riddled with political complications.
Fulfilling a key election promise made by the Congress during the 2023 Telangana Assembly polls, the state government successfully conducted what it hails as India’s largest socioeconomic survey, widely referred to as the caste census.
The massive survey, completed in 50 days, covered 96.7 percent of the state’s population. It revealed that Muslims account for 12.56 percent of the total population in the state. As per the census sample size of 3.54 crore it means that there are about 42,57,306 Muslims in the state.
Given the significant numbers, it is interesting that the Congress did not field many Muslim candidates during the 2023 polls. In the Assembly elections, the Congress fielded four Muslim Candidates, all of them in Hyderabad. The candidates were:
However, all four candidates lost the elections. While the AIMIM won Malakpet, Nampally, and Karwan with Muslim candidates, the BRS took Jubilee Hills with Maganti Gopinath.
Currently, seven out of the 119 legislators are Muslims, making them 5.8 percent of the Legislative Assembly. Yet, the Congress does have a Muslim councillor. While not elected, Amer Ali Khan, a senior journalist, was nominated by the Governor.
Notably, during the first two terms of the BRS, MLC Mahmood Ali served in the Cabinet twice. During the first term, he served as the Deputy Chief Minister and the Revenue Minister. Meanwhile, in the second term, he served as the Home Minister.
“Caste has taken precedence during this Cabinet’s expansion,” senior journalist CR Gowri Shanker told South First. The former political editor at Deccan Chronicle, observed that BCs and SCs were an important key in the Congress’s “Social Justice” vision.
“They should take a minority leader into the cabinet as well,” he opined. He also noted that it was not without challenges.
“There is no Muslim elected representative in the Congress. None in the Legislative Assembly and only one member, nominated, in the Legislative Council,” he explained. “However, the problem does not end there. Telangana’s Congress is full of original leaders who have spent their entire lives for the party. The Congress is already rife with tension because these senior leaders have been denied a Cabinet berth in favour of those who switched parties,” he continued.
“With just three berths remaining in the Cabinet, the party is rattled by upset leaders, especially among the Reddys. Everyone is an aspirant,” he said.
He added that picking an MLC would also cause problems for the grand old party. “If they pick a nominated MLC, that opens a can of worms. There will be opposition to the fact that the Councillor is nominated, not elected. Furthermore, a berth to him will open the door for other MLCs staking a claim for the remaining slots,” he predicted.
“There is a sliver of hope in the upcoming Jubilee Hills by-elections. However, even that is unlikely, given the support the MIM enjoys over there,” he noted, adding that with just three berths remaining, caste, region, and loyalty will come to the forefront.
“I don’t think that there will be a minister from the minority community in the Telangana Cabinet,” Congress leader Mohammed Feroz Khan told South First. Serving as the TPCC general secretary, he was among the few minority leaders who contested from the Congress in the 2023 state polls.
“The reason I think there will not be any minority minister is that we don’t have any elected representatives. While there is MLC Amer Ali Khan, the chief minister and the party believe that he is not fit to be a minister,” he said.
“Amer Ali Khan got the nomination by approaching Delhi. He is not a member of Congress either. He will not be a minister,” Khan asserted. However, he did not completely dismiss the possibility of a Muslim minister.
“If a Muslim candidate wins the upcoming Jubilee Hills by-elections that person will be inducted in the Cabinet,” he said.
(Edited by Majnu Babu).
