16th Lok Sabha to have most number of 'elders'

At 86, veteran BJP leader L K Advani will be the “grand old man” of the 16th Lok Sabha while five 26-years-old MPs – including INLD chief Omprakash Chautala’s grandson Dushyant and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee’s nephew Abhishek – will be the “toddlers”.

Former prime minister H D Deve Gowda (JD-S) will be the second oldest at 81 years. Besides, Dushyant and Abhishek, the other youngest ones are Chennai-based doctor J Jayavardhan (Chennai-South, AIADMK), Heena Gavit (Nandurbar, BJP) and Raksha Nikhil (Raver, BJP).

Heena’s victory was against nine-time MP Manik Rao Gavit while Dushyant trounced Haryana Janhit Congress’ Kuldeep Bishnoi.

An analysis by PRS Legislative Research showed that the incoming Lok Sabha would be a little older than the earlier one with 253 of the total 543 MPs above the age of 55 as against 234 in the outgoing House. “This is the largest number of MPs to be elected to the Lok Sabha who are above the age of 55 in the history of the country. Interestingly, the Lok Sabha has been getting older every election since independence. 

 Only 71 MPs have been elected to the Lok Sabha in this election who happen to be under the age of 40,” the PRS said. In the 41-55 years age group, there are 216 MPs while there are 212 in 56-70 age group.

Forty-one MPs are in the above-70-years age group. Advani will be one of the senior-most members in Lok Sabha, being a member from 1989 except for a brief period between 1996 and 1998. However, Congress’ Kamal Nath (67), a nine-time MP from Madhya Pradesh’s Chhindwara, will be the senior most in terms of his presence in Lok Sabha. 

He has been an MP of Lok Sabha from 1980 uninterrupted, except for a two-year period from 1996 to 1998. 

If Basudeb Acharia (CPM) and Manikrao Gavit (Congress) had won this time, they would have the honour of being the senior-most MPs as they would have been in the Lower House for the 10th term. On the education front, there are 33 MPs with doctorates as against 24 last time. 

Seventy-five per cent of the new MPs have at least a graduate degree, which is slightly lesser than last time’s 79 per cent. “Interestingly, the percentage of MPs elected who do not have a matriculate degree is significantly higher in the 2014 general elections (13 per cent or 69) in comparison to the 15th Lok Sabha (3 per cent or 20). 

At the same time, the number of MPs with just a matriculate degree has decreased in the 16th Lok Sabha to 10 per cent from 17 per cent,” the PRS said.

The analysis also showed that 144 MPs have shown agriculture as their profession followed by political and social work (132), business (111), lawyers (38), medical practitioner (24), teachers (22), artistes (18), civil, police and military service (8) and journalists (4) among others.