Before the independence of India, Assam Muslims  played an important role in the state politics. Syed Muhammad Sadullah had been premier of Assam for over seven years (from April 1, 1937 to February 11, 1946). In  his ministry there were two to four Muslim cabinetministers.

36 years after Sadullah, Syed Anowara Taimur of the Congress(I) became the Chief Minister of Assam with the support of independent members on December 6, 1980 and remained in the saddle till June 28, 1981 ... She had only three Muslim ministers in her 16-member cabinet. In Hiteswar Saikia's ministry, there were 6-8 Muslim ministers ...

in 1941, the Muslim population of the State was 34,28,969 and their growth rate between 1931 and 1941 was 32.9. In 1946 there were 108 seats in the state legislature and the number of Muslim members was 34. After independence ... Muslim population of Assam decreased to 19,95,936 in 1951,and the number of their representatives in the Assembly was reduced to 15 in 1952. The Muslim representation in the Assembly during 1946-96 is as follows:

Except in 1983, che percentage of the Muslim representation in the state legislature has always been less than the proportion of their populatton in the state. Some Assamese intellectuals and organisations have been raising an apprehension in the mind of the people to the effect that the Muslim population of Assam (is) a threat to the culture, identity and political power of the Assamese people, despite the fact that the Assam Muslims have already declared Assamese's their mother tongue ...

When the Muslims are unable to secure representation in the State legislature in proportion tot heir population, how can they pose a threat to the political power of the Assamese Hindus? How can 28.20% Muslims who are known to be economically and educationally the most backward community in Assam, endanger the culture and identity of 71.80% strong non-Muslim population of the state? The fact is that the apprehension raised by the vested interests of the majority community is a ploy to harass the Muslim minority of Assam as Bangladeshis (and that) the identity and survival of the Muslim minority in Assam today are in peril ... Out of 17 districts, the Muslims have more than 50 per cent of population only in three districts which have a total of only 22 Assembly seats. Out of these 22 seats, Muslim candidates could win 12 to 15 seats and from the rest of the districts 13 to 20 seats. Thus they can have altogether 25 to 35 elected representatives in the state legislature.

The representation remains divided among different political parties. The chance for all Assam Muslims to come together under a political party for contesting election is very remote. Even then if they somehow unite together, they will never get more than 25 candidates elected. In 1985, the Muslims fought the assembly election unitedly along with the Bengali Hindus under the banner of the United Minorities Front (MUF) and could elect only 17candidates - 13 Muslims and 4 Bengali Hindus. Besides this, another 12 Muslim candidates won the election – 5 on Congress(I) tickets, 2 on SUCI tickets, 1 on Congress(S) ticket and 4 independents. As a whole Muslim candidates won only 25 seats out of the total seats. It is now clear that Muslims will never be able to have more than 25-35 legislators and form government on their own ...

The All Assam Students Union (AASU) has demanded cent per cent reservation of seats in parliament, state legislature and local bodies for indigenous people of Assam under clause VI of the Assam Accord which grants constitutional safeguards to the Assamese people (though) nowhere in the Assam Accord, the word 'indigenous' is mentioned.