More than half, or 52 per cent, of members of Parliament (MPs) in the 18th Lok Sabha are above the age of 55, according to data from PRS Legislative Research. Those aged 40 or below accounted for 11 per cent.
Not just that. There are 58 winners who are 40 years old or younger.
Shambhavi from Samastipur in Bihar, Pushpendra Saroj from Kaushambi in Uttar Pradesh, and Priya Saroj from Machhlishahr constituencies in Uttar Pradesh are the youngest winners this time around. All of them are 25 years old, and contested from constituencies reserved for the scheduled caste community.
TR Baalu from Tamil Nadu’s Sriperumbudur is the oldest winner. He is 82.
The education profile of those elected has also moved towards those with greater college education, according to PRS Legislative Research data.
More men populate the ranks of India’s 18th Lok Sabha than the previous one shows a breakup from PRS Legislative Research.
Out of a total of 797 women who contested in the Lok Sabha elections this time, 74 or less than a tenth won the elections. This translates into lower representation than in the previous election. Representation of women is below the eventual target of 33 per cent of all the seats being reserved for women in the Lok Sabha and state legislatures under the Women’s Reservation Bill.
The richest candidate in 2009 was V M Singh with assets of Rs 632 crore. He was a national convenor of All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee, who was removed by farmers in 2020.
In 2014, Nandan Nilekani, co-founder of Infosys, was the wealthiest candidate with total assets valued at over Rs 7,710 crore.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the richest candidate was Ramesh Kumar Sharma, an engineer by profession, whose large chunk of the wealth is a result of the appreciation in the value of his agricultural land in Navi Mumbai, with total assets worth Rs 1,108 crore.
First Published: Jun 06 2024 | 11:59 PM IST
