All in the family: 62 per cent of young MPs have kin in politics

Even the kind of family ties is instructive: 33 of these young MPs have fathers as politicians,just six have mothers as politicians. Political uncles,brothers and grandfathers have three MPs each; two young MPs are married to politicians.

Of the 31 young MPs who don’t have relatives in politics,nine cut their teeth in student politics,two have RSS backgrounds while one,the Trinamool’s Shatabdi Roy,was a film star.

A state-wise analysis shows young MPs from Maharashtra,Orissa,Haryana and Punjab,including Lakshadweep’s MP,all have some kin or the other in politics. Not even a single MP from these states has made it without family backing. The trend is reverse in Kerala and Jharkhand; no MP from these two states comes from a political family.

A party-wise analysis of the young MPs in the 15th Lok Sabha also throws up some interesting trends. The Congress has the highest number of young MPs — 25 — a statistic attributed to MP Rahul Gandhi’s focus on youth and party cadres. However,out of 25,22 have relatives in politics,including Rahul himself. Of the three young Congress MPs who aren’t from political families,two have risen from student politics,including Meenakshi Natrajan,the 36-year-old first-time MP from Mandsour,Madhya Pradesh,who was NSUI president.

The BJP’s young MPs seem more self-made. Of the 17,just seven have a political family background. Of the remaining 10,five come from either student politics or the RSS. The other cadre-based party,the Communists,fare even better. None of the four young CPI(M) MPs come from political families.

Of the smaller parties,the Samajwadi Party has six young MPs. Of these,four come from political backgrounds; only one has risen from student politics. The NCP doesn’t believe in half measures. All five of its young MPs,including Supriya Sule and Agatha Sangma,come from political families.

As for the DMK,two of its three Cabinet ministers are related to patriarch M Karunanidhi. However,the DMK’s younger MPs tell a different tale. Of the DMK’s three young MPs,none of them has any family in politics.

Even those MPs who don’t have relatives in politics,often have blood ties of a different kind. Ashwamedh Devi,the JD(U) MP from Ujiarpur,Bihar,is married to a local strongman.

And while many Lok Sabha constituencies are pocket boroughs,nurtured by the father to be inherited by the son,the Gorakhpur constituency has proved to be a different sort of inheritance. The previous MP was the BJP’s Avaidyanath,head of the Gorakhsh peeth ,a Hindu religious monastery. He has since passed on his constituency to the second-in-line at the peeth,Yogi Adityanath,who now represents Gorakhpur in the 15th Lok Sabha. Sometimes water,holy water,can be thicker than blood.