Lucknow: Voters in Uttar Pradesh have elected a record 63 Muslim legislators to the 403-member state assembly in the just-concluded elections.
This is seven more than the number of Muslims elected in the 2007, when the previous high of 56 was recorded.
The lowest number of Muslims members in the assembly - 25 - was in 1993, at the peak of the Ramjanmabhoomi movement.
The 2012 polls have seen a whopping 40 Muslim candidates of the Samajwadi Party, which is set to form the new government, being elected. Fourteeen candidates of the outgoing Bahujan Samaj Party
have been elected.
The Congress, despite its 18 percent sub-quota promise mid-way in the seven-phased elections, has only been able to send three Muslim legislators.
Three Muslim candidates of the Peace Party and two of the Kaumi Ekta Dal were elected, as was one Independent.
IANS
