132 ENSEMBLE, Vol. 2, No. 2 [September 2020] Article Type: Research Article Article Ref. No.: 20062000222MF https://doi.org/10.37948/ensemble-2021-0202-a015 MUSLIM MINORITIES IN ELECTORAL POLITICS OF TRIPURA Sumon Ali 1 , Alak Bhattacharya 2 Abstract: Indian democracy allows citizens to choose their ruler by using their democratic rights of Universal Adult Franchise. However, they all cannot freely choose their representative due to many obligations from their leaders, community, and groups to which they belong. The study of electoral politics helps us to understand determinants of the voting behaviour of individual or community. The participation of religious minorities in electoral politics increases significantly, elections after elections, and their share in governance has increased only marginally. Among the Minorities, Muslims are the vulnerable section of Society and under-represented in India's legislative bodies and political process and the state of Tripura. Tracing the position of Muslim minorities in the electoral politics of Tripura, the findings observe that Muslims are politically less aware due to many socio-economic problems and the terrible intention of some political parties for using Muslims as vote bank without concerning the development of the communities. In this background, the present study is an attempt to understand the role of Muslim Minorities in the electoral politics of Tripura. It also examines the issues and factors that influence the Muslims' political behaviour during elections in Tripura. Article History: Submitted on 20th Jun 2020 | Accepted on 13th Feb 2021| Published online on 04 Jun 2021 Keywords: Democracy, Development, Plurality, Political exclusion, Vote bank 1.0 Introduction: Indian democracy implies that the government draws its authority from the will of the people. The will of the people reflected in many ways like voting in the election, political participation, sharing the political opinion of the Individual and the masses. The study of electoral politics helps to understand how the individual electorate can impact public policy (Nath, 2009). It attempts to discover the extent and nature of uniformities in people's actual behaviour and groups of people in the political process (Nath, 2009). Through the participation of religious minorities in electoral politics is increasing elections after elections, their share in governance has increased only marginally (Ansari, 2006). Muslim Minorities are the vulnerable section of the Society and under- represented in the parliament, state legislature and local bodies (Bhattacharya & Ali, 2018; Rahaman, 2018). They are also having less representation in political organisations and political activities. However, the community’s political mobilisation and electoral participation have always remained satisfactory even though it has remained the most disempowered religious A bi-lingual peer reviewed academic journal ISSN: 2582 - 0427 (Online) Vol. 2, No. 2 September, 2020 http://www.ensembledrms.in 1 [Author]  [Corresponding Author] Research Scholar cum Guest Faculty, Department of Political Science,Tripura University, Suryamaninagar, 799022, Agartala, Tripura, INDIA. E-mail: sumonkls786@gmail.com 2 [Author] Professor & HOD, Department of Political Science, Tripura University, Suryamaninagar,799022, Agartala, Tripura, INDIA © 2021 Ensemble; The authors This work is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License