Jaipur: Talking about young leadership and bringing the youth into the frontline has proved lip service in the election battle of Rajasthan as both Congress and BJP have preferred experience over the enthusiasm of youth. Congress and BJP have given just 35 and 27.5 percent tickets to the leaders below the age of 50 respectively.
It Is believed that election ticket and political power can make young and energetic anyone and the candidate selection of Congress and BJP hints that their leaders firmly believe in this.
Congress claims it gave more opportunities to the youth
That is the reason that Congress had decided to give maximum opportunities to the youth in its Chintan Shivir held in Udaipur last year. given just 34 tickets to candidates below the age of 40 and has fielded 121 candidates out of a total of 200 of the age of above 50. Four of them are of the age of above 80, years. While the youngest one is Sanjna Jatav (25) from the Kathumar seat of Alwar.
It is worth mentioning here that the oldest candidate of the party Amin Khan (84) from the Shiv assembly constituency of Barmer has got a party ticket for the 10th time in a row.
While the BJP denied the tickets of veteran leaders above 80 years of age Kailash Meghwal and Suryakanta Vyas and has not given a ticket to any leader above 75 years of age, its number of candidates below the age of 40 is just 18, almost half of the Congress. The party has fielded 135 candidates who are above the age of 50 years.
The oldest candidate of the party Vasudev Devnani (75) from Ajmer North assembly constituency is a four-time MLA from this seat and still the party could not find a young replacement.
Amid all this, the senior minister in Ashok Gehlot's cabinet Hemaram Choudhary showed the way by quitting active politics at the age of 75. He has represented the Gudhamalani seat of Barmer six times. His party was ready to field him once again and people of his constituency also urged him to contest but in a letter to the party president Mallikarjun Kharge, Hemaram said that it is time now that the old generation should give way to the young leadership so he is not contesting the election this time.
The age-wise breakup of seats
Age group Congress. BJP
Below 30. 3. 0
31-40. 31. 18
41-50. 45 47
51-60. 50. 67
Above 60. 71. 68
Prominent candidates of BJP above 70
Vasudev Devnani, 75 years
Ratan Jaldhari, 74 years
Kalicharan Saraf, Pabbaram Vishnoi, Narpat Singh Rajvi and Kirodilal Meena, all 72 years
Vasundhara Raje – 70 years
youngest candidate
Anshuman Singh – 27 years
Prominent candidates of Congress above 70
Amin Khan - 84 years
Deepchand Kheria and Harimohan Sharma – 83 years
Mahadev Singh - 80 years
Youngest candidate of Congress
Sanjana Jatav from Kathumar – 25 years
