Meet Tasneem Bano, Mysuru’s First Muslim Woman Mayor

Mysuru city elected its first Muslim woman Mayor on Saturday. Tasneem Bano is a Janta Dal (Secular) corporator who is now the 22nd mayor of the city along with C. Sridhar (of Congress) as the deputy mayor. Commissioner V. Yeshwant conducted the elections. Mysore City Corporation (MCC) elected its mayor, deputy mayor and representatives of its standing committees at the Nalwadi Krishnaraja Wadiyar council hall.

Key Takeaways:

• Tasneem Bano defeats BJP counterpart by 47 votes.
• The Mysore City Corporation (MCC) to be led by a JDS-Congress alliance.
• Congress-JDS alliance to represent three positions in the standing committees.
• Out of all the Lok Sabhas ever formed, five had no Muslim woman representation. They face representation issues throughout the country which are now points of debates and discussions.

The alliance defeated Geetha Yoganand and Shantamma from the BJP who stood for the posts of mayor and deputy mayor also. Bano won against Geetha Yoganad by 47 votes. Moreover, Sridhar had 24 more votes in the polls against his BJP counterpart.

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Bano who represents ward number 26 in the MCC is 34 and a graduate. The JDS party leaders chose Bano for contesting the mayor’s seat in these elections in the end after names of four aspirants were doing the rounds. The candidature for the position was reserved for backward classes (A) woman.

“Mysuru is known for cleanliness. Thus, my first priority is to maintain cleanliness and I will work towards retaining the 'Clean City' tag. The city is facing issues related to street lights among others for many days. I will make prompt attempts to resolve them,” Tasneem said as per a report.

MCC chose Pushpalatha Jagannath from the Congress as the mayor previously. Hence, it was an understanding within the alliance that it would choose MCC’s mayor from the JDS party. The former mayor vouched for Bano for the position as she was seen to be more “articulate and active.”

Representation of standing committees at Mysuru

Besides mayoral elections, the city also elected members of the standing committees. The Congress and JDS parties sent representatives for three posts while the BJP sent representatives for four.

Shobha, Gopi, Bhagya, Ayaz Pasha, Usha, Sharadamma, and Bhuvaneshwari shall represent the standing committee on public health, education and social justice.

Nirmala, Savitha, Soumya, Lakshmi, Akmal Pasha, Samiulla, and G.S. Satyaraju to represent the committee of taxation, finance and appeals. Hasrathulla, Srinivas, Rukmini, Ramesh, Hajeera Seema, Sunanda Palanetra, and Pramila Bharath will represent the committee of city planning and improvement.

Shwini Ananthu, Begum Pallagi, Chayadevi, Vedavathi, Ayub Khan, Arif Hussain, and Pradeep Chandra are to represent the standing committee of accounts and audit.

Position of Muslim women in Indian politics

Representation of Muslim women in Indian politics has been dismal statistically. Out of all the Lok Sabhas ever formed, five had no Muslim woman representation. They face representation issues throughout the country which are now points of debates and discussions. One of the many reasons for this is that communities do not encourage Muslim women to step out in leadership roles. Patriarchal and regressive cultural values often chain in women and they are not deemed capable of crossing domestic boundaries.

Out of all the Lok Sabhas ever formed, five had no Muslim woman representation. They face representation issues throughout the country which are now points of debates and discussions.

As a response, Muslim women produced a 39 point manifesto demanding protection of the interests of minorities. It focuses on women based issues and rights of Muslims and other minorities across India. Unfortunately, it has not been able to garner any significant attention from the political parties.

Also read: Here’s Why India Needs More Women In Leadership Roles

Vipashyana Dubey is an intern with SheThePeople.TV