In a first, no Muslim takes oath as minister

NEW DELHI: This is perhaps the first time that no Muslim MP took oath as minister after the election. Interestingly, the outgoing council of ministers did not have a Muslim minister after Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi was not re-elected to Rajya Sabha.
The composition of the council of ministers sworn in after every general election had at least one Muslim MP in it.In 2014, when PM Narendra Modi took oath for the first time, Najma Heptulla was sworn in and was made minority affairs minister. In 2019, Naqvi was sworn in and he too became minority affairs minister.
One of the reasons for no Muslim representation in this council of ministers is that no Muslim candidate from NDA allies got elected to the 18th Lok Sabha. Of the 24 Muslim MPs elected to the lower House, 21 are from the INDIA bloc and the remaining are Asaduddin Owaisi of All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen and two Independents — Abdul Rashid Sheikh or ‘Engineer Rashid’ and Mohmad Haneefa from J&K.
The council of ministers of 2004 and 2009 had four and five Muslim MPs respectively. Even in 1999, the Atal Bihari Vajpayee govt had two Muslims in the council of ministers — Shahnawaz Hussain and Omar Abdullah. In 1998, the Vajpayee-led ministry had Naqvi as minister of state.