Minorities Affairs Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi resigned on Wednesday, a day before his term as a member of parliament (MP) was scheduled to end.
The 64-year-old politician was the only Muslim minister in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) that boasts of nearly 400 MPs.
Naqvi’s exit comes as the BJP faces allegations of persecuting the minority community since coming to power in 2014.
India is home to about 200 million Muslims – the world’s third-largest Muslim population after Indonesia and Pakistan.
Naqvi has been replaced by actress-turned-politician Smriti Irani, 46.Media reports speculated that the BJP could be considering Naqvi for the post of India’s vice-president amid global outrage over one of its officials making controversial anti-Islam remarks.
The vice-presidential polls are scheduled on August 6 while the term of the current incumbent, M Venkaiah Naidu, ends on August 10.
Last month, the BJP nominated Droupadi Murmu for the president’s post. If Murmu wins, she will be India’s first tribal politician and the second woman to hold the position.
India’s constitution provides a largely ceremonial role for the president and vice-president, with the prime minister and his cabinet holding the executive powers.Modi’s BJP, which claims to be the “biggest political party in the world”, has 301 members in the lower house of parliament who are elected directly by the people.
Naqvi’s exit means the right-wing party does not have any Muslim member in the upper house of parliament as well.Experts say the absence of Muslim representatives in the BJP’s elected ranks contradicts the party’s oft-repeated slogan: “Sabka saath, sabka vikas” (Harmony and inclusive growth for all).
Journalist and political analyst Arati R Jerath told Al Jazeera the BJP historically had a “token Muslim presence” but that is no more the case as far as the executive is concerned.
“This is something new and unusual. They don’t even have a token Muslim face anymore. I guess it shows how BJP has changed now under Modi and [federal Home Minister Amit] Shah,” she said.
“It quite openly says that we have shown that we can win an election without the support of Muslims.”
