To contest the parliamentary polls, a candidate must be at least 25 years old. The record of the youngest MPs had been held by Chandrani Murmu, prior to this, who won Odisha’s Keonjhar seat in 2019. She was 25 years 11 months and 8 days old, when elected. 

The 2024 Lok Sabha elections wrapped up yesterday with quite a few surprises. Among these surprises are four candidates, now 25, elected to become the youngest members of Parliament (MPs) after winning their poll. Pushpendra Saroj, Priya Saroj, Shambhavi Choudary and Sanjana Jatav are these four candidates. The Saroj’s contested with Samajwadi Party’s tickets, Choudary contested with a Congress ticket and Jatav contested with a Lok Janshakti Party. Of these four candidates, three are women. 

Shambhavi Choudhary 

Choudhary won the Samastipur constituency and is a daughter of Ashok Chaudhary, a minister in the Nitish Kumar cabinet. 

Previously, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had praised Choudhary to be the youngest NDA candidate while addressing a campaigning rally. He said, “The youngest daughter of India is contesting the elections. Please bless us, our daughter must win.”

youngest MPs
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Her rival, son of JD(U) minister Maheshwar Hazari, Sunny Hazari had trailed behind by 1,87,537 votes.

“This victory belongs to the people of Samastipur. I will try my best to live up to the expectations of the people. It is not just an electoral victory. I believe that people have given me a place in their hearts. I would like to express my gratitude to the people of Samastipur, NDA leaders and workers.” Shambhavi said.

Sanjana Jatav 

Jatav won the Bharatpur constituency in Rajasthan. Fielded by Lok Janshakti Party, BJP’s Ramswaroop Koli had trailed behind her by a margin of 51,983 votes. 

She is a mother of two and hails from the Dalit community. “I thank the party leadership for giving me this opportunity and the people of Bharatpur for their immense support,” she said.

Jatav had also contested from Alwar’s Kathumar seat in the November 2023, which she only lost out of by a very slim margin of 409 votes to BJP’s Ramesh Khinchi, proving the validity of her candidacy. 

Post her win, she was seen dancing to a Rajasthani folk song and celebrating her victory. She dedicates this win to her supporters and the people who had faith in her. 

Pushpendra and Priya Saroj 

The Saroj’s won by a very comfortable margin. Pushpendra Saroj lead BJP candidate Vinod Kumar Sonkar by 1,03,944 votes and Priya Saroj lead BJP’s Bholanath (B.P Saroj) by 35,850 votes. 

Pushpendra Saroj dedicates his win to the people of Kaushambi, his contesting constituency. “The people of Kaushambi had voted for a change and this is their win. People very well understood that the exit poll trends were simply aimed at creating pressure on them and breaking their self-confidence. The result today is the verdict of the people and their stand has been made crystal clear today,” he said.

Priya Saroj, the daughter of three-time MP Toofani Saroj, won by a count of 4,51,292 votes. She stood against B.P. Saroj, the man who’d previously won from the Machhlishahr constituency and emerged victorious. She is an LLB graduate from Amity University Noida and upon her graduation, she immediately began practising in the Supreme Court.

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