The 2024 Lok Sabha election results threw up some surprises as the Opposition INDIA bloc defied exit poll predictions and performed better than expected and prevented the BJP, which was predicted to win an outright majority, from crossing the 300-mark. However, the election also resulted in four candidates, who are all 25 years old, being elected to Parliament.
The four GenZ MPs, Pushpendra Saroj, Priya Saroj, Shambhavi Choudhary and Sanjana Jatav are set to become the youngest MPs in the 18th Lok Sabha. While Pushpendra Saroj and Priya Saroj contested on a Samajwadi Party (SP) ticket, Shambhavi Choudhary and Sanjana Jatav are from Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) and Congress, respectively.
1. Pushpendra Saroj- A Samajwadi Party (SP) member, Pushpendra Saroj won Uttar Pradesh's Kaushambi Lok Sabha seat, defeating sitting BJP MP Vinod Kumar Sonkar by a margin of 1,03,944 votes. He is the son of Inderjit Saroj, the national general secretary of SP, a five-time MLA and former Uttar Pradesh Minister. Notably, Inderjit Saroj had lost this seat to Sonkar in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
Pushpendra Saroj took the plunge into politics after completing his B.Sc. in Accounting and Management from Queen Mary University of London.
2. Priya Saroj- The 25-year-old also fought the 2024 Lok Sabha elections on an SP ticket in Uttar Pradesh's Machhlishahr seat. She defeated sitting BJP MP Bholanath by a margin of 35,850 votes.
Priya Saroj's father, Toofani Saroj, is a three-time MP.
3. Shambhavi Choudhary- Contesting on a LJP ticket, Shambhavi Choudhary emerged victorious in Bihar's Samastipur constituency and defeated Congress's Sunny Hazari, the son of Janata Dal (United) Minister Maheshwar Hazari, by a margin of over one lakh votes.
Shambhavi Choudhary, who earlier harboured aspirations to join politics, is the daughter of Ashok Choudhary, who is a part of the Nitish Kumar-led cabinet in Bihar. Ashok Choudhary had recently to the JD(U) from the Congress.
Shambhavi Choudhary's grandfather, late Mahavir Choudhary, was also a part of the Congress and served as a state minister when the grand old party was in power in Bihar.
4. Sanjana Jatav- Sanjana Jatav, a Congress candidate, won the Bharatpur seat in Rajasthan, defeating BJP's Ramswaroop Koli by a margin of 51,983 votes. She tried her luck in last year's assembly polls in Rajasthan but marginally lost to Ramesh Khedi of the BJP by only 409 votes. A video posted by news agency ANI showed Sanjana Jatav dancing and others immersed in celebrations as she created history by becoming one of the youngest MPs in the country.
Source: India Today