From a bird’s eye view the newly elected legislators of fourth Jharkhand Assembly appear fresh and young, however, a detailed analysis of their age shows that there has been a substantial decrease in the number of young legislators this election. The average age of candidates in 2009 was 45 that has scaled to 47 years in 2014 elections.
In 2009, six legislators were elected between the ages of 20 and 30 years, while in 2014 only three leaders of the age group have made it to the Assembly. Similarly, in the 41 to 50 years bracket the strength of MlAs has reduced from 34 to 32. "People usually relate a politician's experience with development. The more aged is a leader, the more he is taken for granted. But, the concept will hopefully be vice-versa this time. It depends on an individual how he manages a certain situation on the basis of his leadership abilities," said first time Member of legislative Assembly (MlA) from Kanke constituency, Jitu Charan Ram.
Interestingly, Ram is 39-year-old but has mentioned 44 in his affidavit. "Officially I may be 44 years. It is not my actual age. I am 39 years and will turn 40 after few days," he added. Another first timer Raj Kumar Yadav of 42 years from Dhanwar felt 20s and 40s are a politician's peak age of proving his or her potential. "Age is not an influential factor. In my age, politicians have the capability to fight for a reason. They dare to stand for the weak and work for development. Moreover, youngsters can easily associate with our age group. I hope we can bring the much expected change," he said.
Even the experienced leaders of the state are expecting these young ones to work effectively. CP Singh, the five time MlA from Ranchi and former Assembly Speaker felt age has nothing to do with the learning process that one goes through in any field of work. He said," Every person, specially an MlA, young or old, first timer or has been re-elected many times must learn from his work. It is the number of steps taken for the sake of public which counts for a politician besides the years spent in politics."
The youngest MlA is Alok Kumar Chaurasia (25) from Daltonganj and the eldest member is Fulchand Mandal (71) from Sindri. Meanwhile the number of MlAs in the age group of 51 to 60 years has increased from 10 in 2009 to 17 in 2014. There are nine members between the ages of 61 to 70 years. Previously, it was only eight. Also, in the last assembly elections no candidate was above 70 years of age.