How Yuva Josh is lacking in political candidature

Is age just a number? Clearly not if you are in politics.

For a country like India, where 65 per cent of the population is below the age of 35, and whose average age is less than 28, political parties have largely been aloof from fielding young contestants. This, despite the fact, that it is the youth who decide the fate of parties given the numerical strength, and the aggressive posturing by political outfits to woo this demography.

Though young leaders such as Kanhaiya Kumar (CPI) and Tejasvi Surya (BJP) have made their presence felt in this election, their representation in the candidates' list in this Lok Sabha election remains low.

India Today's Data Intelligence Unit (DIU) divided the ages of candidates in this election into three brackets: 25-40 (young), 40-60 (middle-aged) and above 60 (old).

DIU found that on an average, hardly 33 per cent of the total candidates are below 40 years of age. More than 48 per cent candidates are in the 40-60 age brackets. Around 19 per cent of the candidates are above 60 years.

AVERAGE AGE

The average age of India was estimated to be 27.9 years in 2018. However, DIU found that the average age of candidates is 46 years, thus creating an age difference of 18 years.

Of the bigger regional and national parties, only one is close to the average age and one is lower than 46. Also, regional parties have a lower average age than the larger national parties.

With an average candidates' age of 44 years, Shiv Sena is the 'youngest' political party. The average age of YSR Congress is 46. So is the average age of all Independent candidates.

Candidates of Telugu Desam Party (TDP), All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), Samajwadi Party (SP) and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) have an average age of 47 years.

Janata Dal (United) is the 'oldest' political party with an average candidates' age of 57 years, followed by Congress (56), CPI(M) (55), BJP(55) and BSP(53). The bigger parties have an average age which is double the average of the whole country.

THE YOUNGEST PARTIES

With 45.3 per cent of its candidates below 40 years of age, Shiv Sena has emerged to be the party with the youngest candidates, followed by BSP (29 per cent), AAP (29 per cent) and Trinamool Congress (26 per cent).

DMK is the only big party which hasn't fielded a single candidate below 40 years of age. The second poorest party in this aspect is the BJP, with hardly 8 per cent candidates aged below 40 years, followed by Rashtriya Janata Dal (9.5 per cent), CPI(M) (10 per cent) and Congress (12 per cent).

Interestingly, most of these parties have their own student bodies that contest elections in colleges and universities across the country.

THE OLDEST PARTIES

With 52 per cent candidates aged above 60 years, TDP is the 'oldest' political party. It is followed by the JD(U) where 42 per cent candidates are above 60 years of age. Trinamool Congress has 39 per cent old candidates.

Interestingly, the percentage of old candidates in Congress and BJP is more than thrice the number of young candidates fielded by them. Around 38 per cent of Congress candidates are above 60 years of age, while 32 per cent of BJP candidates are old.

The oldest candidate of the lot is 90-year-old Alagar P, who is contesting from Madurai in Tamil Nadu on a Desiya Makkal Sakthi Katchi ticket.

THE YOUNGEST FACES

The minimum age for contesting Lok Sabha elections is 25 years, and DIU found 65 such candidates. Among the major parties, BSP has fielded two 25-year-olds, while Shiv Sena and Trinamool Congress have fielded one each.

From BSP, the two 25-year-old candidates are Geetanjali Singh from Durg (Chhattisgarh) and Nikhil from Thrissur (Kerala). Shiv Sena's Rinku Sahani is contesting from Bahraich (Uttar Pradesh), and Trinamool's Rupali Biswas is in the fray from Ranaghat (West Bengal).

Tejasvi Surya (28), contesting from Bangalore South (Karnataka) is BJP's youngest candidate. Bhavya Bishnoi (26) from Hisar (Haryana) is the youngest candidate from Congress. Raghav Chadha (30), contesting from South Delhi, is AAP's youngest candidate.

But while Kanhaiya Kumar (32) is the young face of CPI, he is not the youngest candidate of the party. Ali Akbar K, 31, (Lakshadweep) and Keshkali, 31, (Shahdol, Madhya Pradesh) are the youngest CPI candidates. The youngest DMK candidate, DNV Senthilkumar, is 41 years old.

Barring CPI, all the young faces mentioned above have attained higher education (graduation and above).

THE 'YOUNGEST' AND 'OLDEST' STATES

Most candidates contesting from smaller states and Union territories are below 40 years of age. Dadra and Nagar Haveli (64 per cent), Sikkim (55 per cent), Goa (50 per cent), Lakshadweep (50 per cent) and Nagaland (50 per cent) score big on this count.

Among the bigger states, 45 per cent of Telangana's candidates are below 40 years of age. Jharkhand has 39 per cent young candidates, followed by Haryana (36 per cent), Gujarat (38 per cent) and Tamil Nadu (38 per cent).

Nagaland, with four candidates, has a 50-50 ratio of young and old contestants.

The states with maximum old candidates are Manipur (36.8 per cent), Himachal Pradesh (35 per cent), Chandigarh (33 per cent), Mizoram (33 per cent) and Tripura (30 per cent) are old.

No candidate in Meghalaya, Sikkim and Dadra and Nagar Haveli are above 60 years of age.