Kerala BJP President Rajeev Chandrasekhar stirred a political discussion on Wednesday after tying Muslim political representation to their voting patterns during an interaction at the Kozhikode Press Club’s ‘Meet the Press’.
Reiterating his stance several times, he argued that political posts arise from electoral outcomes rather than any guaranteed claim, saying that the reason the community has no presence in the Union Cabinet is linked to their choices at the ballot box.
According to him, “There will be a Muslim MP only if Muslims vote for the BJP. If there is no MP, how can there be a Muslim minister?”
He repeatedly pressed the question of what meaningful gains the community had received by backing the Congress for decades. “What have Muslims achieved by voting for the Congress? If they are unwilling to vote for the BJP, how can they expect representation?” he said, positioning the issue as one of mandate rather than entitlement.
Chandrasekhar suggested that a shift in Kozhikode’s voting behaviour could potentially enable the emergence of a Muslim MP from the area, which, in his view, could open the door for a ministerial role.
He framed this as a straightforward extension of electoral arithmetic rather than a matter of political favour.
The BJP leader also framed the upcoming electoral cycle in Kerala in urgent terms, describing it not as a warm-up but as the decisive contest. He contended that the party is aiming for more than replacing the state government; instead, it seeks a broader change in the state’s administrative approach.
He claimed that the Centre is responsible for a very large share of Kerala’s development spending, asserting that 95 per cent of such work is funded by the Union government, while accusing the state of inadequate allocation. In his words, what Kerala now requires is a “double-engine government.”
Chandrasekhar’s comments arrive at a time when Kerala prepares for local body elections scheduled in two phases on December 9 and 11. His mandate from Union Home Minister Amit Shah, he said, is to raise the BJP’s vote share from 16 per cent to 25 per cent.
At present, the Union Cabinet has no Muslim ministers. For the first time since Independence, no Muslim MP has found a place in the Cabinet, and no Muslim candidate contesting on an NDA ticket succeeded in the 18th Lok Sabha elections. In the previous Modi government, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi was the only Muslim minister.
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