Welcome to Gen D: Just 384 MPs, MLAs are 40 or under; 1 in 3 are dynasts
The youth may be finding their voice on the streets, but in politics, representation remains limited — and often runs in the family.
The youth may be finding their voice on the streets, but in politics, representation remains limited. (Express photo by Tashi Tobgyal) Jantar Mantar in Delhi, Ranchi, and now Patna. Youth across India have taken to the streets since July, making themselves heard and compelling political parties – from the BJP to the Congress – to reach out to them. But when it comes to political representation for the youth, the road ahead remains arduous. And an analysis by The Indian Express shows that even when you are young, it helps to be a political dynast.
Here are the key findings:
* Gen Z politicians, i.e., those born between 1997 and 2012, or in the 14-29 age band, have only 26 legislators in Parliament and state assemblies.
* Half of them – are political dynasts, i.e., five of six Gen Z Lok Sabha MPs and eight of 20 MLAs in this age group.
* The minimum age to contest an election is 25. That means a chunk of the Gen Z demographic cannot contest. But even among those who are 40 or younger, 37.8 per cent (i.e., 145 of 384) are dynasts. And of those aged 40 and under – or those born in 1986 or later – an estimated 65.4 per cent of 2026 projected population figures.
* Of its 240 Lok Sabha MPs, the BJP has nine in the under-40 bracket and, of them, five are dynasts. The Congress has 98 MPs – seven in the under-40 bracket and four in the dynasts’ bracket. Seven of the Samajwadi Party’s 37 Lok Sabha MPs are in this category and six are dynasts. Four of the Telugu Desam Party’s 16 MPs are under 40 and all of them are dynasts.
The BJP – in power in 22 states and Union Territories, either directly or as part of an alliance, has 1,811 MLAs. Of them, 121 are in the 40-and-under age bracket and 41 are from political families. The Congress, whose footprint has shrunk in recent years and now rules only four states and a fifth by alliance, has 662. Of them 52 are 40-and-under and 23 are dynasts.
Lok Sabha
There are 40 Lok Sabha who are 40 years old or younger, including the six Gen Z parliamentarians.
Five of those six are dynasts and 19 of the 34 MPs in the 30-40 age bracket come from political families.
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Some notable mentions:
* Abhishek Banerjee (38), nephew of Trinamool Congress chairperson and ex-Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee
* Yaduveer Wadiyar (34), BJP MP from the erstwhile royal family of Mysore and adoptive son of ex-MP Srikantadatta Narasimharaja Wadiyar
* Raksha Khadse (39), daughter-in-law of Eknath Khadse, a former minister from Maharashtra
* Karan Bhushan Singh (35), son of ex-Wrestling Federation of India chief and ex-BJP MP Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh
* Congress’ Priyanka Jarkiholi (29), daughter of Karnataka minister Satish Jarkiholi and member of the prominent Jarkiholi political family
* Rashtriya Lok Dal’s Chandan Chauhan (37), grandson of Uttar Pradesh’s first Deputy Chief Minister, Narayan Singh
* Samjwadi Party’s Aditya (38) and Akshay Yadav (39), nephews of former UP CM Mulayam Singh Yadav and cousins of party chief Akhilesh Yadav
* Shiv Sena’s Shrikant Shinde, son of party chief and Maharashtra Deputy CM Eknath Shinde
* Telugu Desam Party’s GM Harish Balayogi (35), son of former Lok Sabha Speaker GMC Balayogi
* Bharat Mathukumilli (37), grandson of ex-MPs and a son-in-law in the prominent Nandamuri-Nara film and political family in Andhra Pradesh
* SP’s Pushpendra Saroj (27) from Kaushambi and Priya Saroj (27) from Machhlishahr in UP
* LJP (Ram Vilas)’s Shambhavi Choudhary (28) from Samastipur in Bihar
This group includes 11 women and that, at 27.5 per cent, is well above the share of women across the entire Lok Sabha at 14 per cent.
However, eight of them are dynasts.
Legislative Assemblies
Across the 31 legislative assemblies, 344 MLAs are aged 40 or younger. Of them, 121, or 35.2 per cent, are dynasts.
MLAs aged 40 and under account for 8.3 per cent of India’s total of 4,131 MLAs.
Only three states do not have any MLAs aged 40 or younger and another two do not have any MLA from a political background.
In seven states, there are more dynastic MLAs than those with no political background in the 40-and-younger bracket, while in 21 states, a majority of these younger legislators have no direct political connection.
The highest share of MLAs from political families in this age band is in Odisha, where 14 of 16 have direct political links. The next most dynastic states in this age group are Maharashtra (12 of 16), Uttar Pradesh (23 of 32), and Karnataka and Haryana (five of nine).
States such as Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and West Bengal, which went to polls earlier this year, are notable outliers for having a sizable number of MLAs aged 40 and under but only a handful who are dynasts. For example, just three of Tamil Nadu’s 47 MLAs in this age bracket are dynasts, while of Bengal’s 45 MLAs aged 40 and younger, just five are from political families. In Kerala, 16 such MLAs include just one from a political family. Similarly, Punjab has just one dynastic legislator among 12 MLAs aged 40 or under.
As a share of Assembly strength, Tamil Nadu has the most MLAs aged 40 or under at 20.1 per cent, followed by Meghalaya at 18.3 per cent, West Bengal at 15.3 per cent, Bihar at 13.2 per cent, and Kerala at 11.4 per cent.
In 16 states, MLAs aged 40 and under account for less than 10 per cent of the Assembly strength.
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Some notable mentions:
* In Bihar, 36-year-old Tejashwi Yadav is the de facto leader of the RJD that was founded by his father and ex-CM Lalu Prasad.
* In Haryana, Congress leader Randeep Surjewala’s son Aditya, 27, is the state’s only Gen Z MLA, while MLA Arjun Chautala, 34, of the Indian National Lok Dal is the grandson of ex-CM O P Chautala.
* In Himachal Pradesh, Cabinet minister Vikramaditya Singh,36, is the son of ex-CM Virbhadra Singh and former state Congress chief Pratibha Singh.
* Among the BJP’s Jammu & Kashmir MLAs is Devyani Rana, 31, niece of Union minister Jitendra Singh and daughter of ex-MLA Devender Rana, who earlier represented her Nagrota seat.
* In Madhya Pradesh, former CM Digvijaya Singh’s son Jaivardhan Singh, 40, has been a Congress MLA for over a decade and served as a minister in the short-lived Kamal Nath government; Congress MLA Abhijeet Shah, 34, belongs to the erstwhile Makrai royal family with ties to both the BJP and Congress.
* In Maharashtra, the children of ex-CMs Ashok Chavan and Uddhav Thackeray — Sreejaya Chavan, 34, of the BJP and Aaditya Thackeray, 36, of the Shiv Sena (UBT) — are both MLAs. The NCP (SP)’s Rohit Patil, 27, son of ex-Deputy CM R R Patil, is the state’s only Gen Z MLA.
* In the Northeast, several former CMs’ children are sitting MLAs, including former Manipur CM Okram Ibobi’s 38-year-old son Surjakumar Okram of the Congress and the children of former Meghalaya CMs Donkupar Roy and Mukul Sangma’s. Roy’s son Balajied Kupar Synrem, 38, is a United Democratic Party MLA and Miani Shira, 36, is a TMC legislator. In Sikkim, 36-year-old Aditya Golay of the ruling Sikkim Krantikari Morcha is the son of sitting CM Prem Singh Tamang.
* In Odisha, Congress veteran and state party chief Bhakta Charan Das’s son Sagar Charan Das, 34, is an MLA.
* In Uttar Pradesh, Wrestling Federation of India’s (WFI) ex-chief Brij Bhushan’s son Prateek Bhushan Singh, 38, is a BJP MLA, while the Samajwadi Party’s first family has several MLAs, including 38-year-old Tej Pratap Singh. Nishad Party founder Sanjay Nishad’s son Sarvan, 36, is an MLA, as is 34-year-old Abbas Ansari, whose father Mukhtar Ansari was a gangster-turned-politician who died while in prison.
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