Congress’ Kaneez Fatima, the lone Muslim woman in the Karnataka Assembly, defeated BJP’s Chandrakant B Patil to win the Karnataka Assembly elections from the Gulbarga North constituency.
Kaneez’s victory comes a year after she led the protest against the hijab ban for students in classrooms. She defeated her BJP rival by a margin of 2,712 votes.
Kaneez Fatima had emerged victorious in the 2018 state elections, in the Muslim-dominated constituency of Gulbarga North. She had defeated Chandrakant B Patil by a 43.29 % vote share and a margin of 5,940 votes.
In February last year, Kaneez Fatima had led a protest against the Karnataka government’s decision to restrict the wearing of hijab in classrooms in the state. She had challenged the state government to stop her from wearing a hijab to the Assembly.
Besides protesting against hijab ban, Fatima had also protested against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) alongside Chittapur MLA Priyank Kharge in Kalaburagi town, earlier in December 2019.
