Of the 378 candidates in fray for the 29 lok Sabha constituencies in Madhya Pradesh, a maximum of 226 are in the 31-50 years age group, including 113 candidates each of 31-40 and 41-50 age groups. The oldest candidate is 75 years old Independent Baba Abdul Hameed Khan in Khandwa lok Sabha constituency. Master Sajid Siddiqui of the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) in Bhopal and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate laxminarayan Yadav in Sagar are both 73-years old.
Similarly, two candidates of minimum 25 years of age are in the fray including Independent Brahmanand Pratap Singh in Sidhi and Independent Udai Pratap Singh in Hoshangabad lok Sabha constituency. Khangar Neeraj contesting in Tikamgarh is 26 years old.
In other age groups, 36 candidates belong to 25-30 age group, 68 of 51-60 age group, 39 of 61-70 age group and 9 candidates of 71-75 age group.
Notably, with first-time voters in mind, most political parties including Congress and BJP have this time opted to give a chance to some fresh faces in Madhya Pradesh with the average age of poll contenders in the state hovering around the new 'young' of 50.
According to statistics available, the average age of Congress candidates worked out to be around 50 while the average age of the BJP candidate was 55 across the State.
The total number of voters in Madhya Pradesh adds up to 4.7 crores. Of these, 33 per cent are youngsters and fall in the age bracket of 18-29 years.