NEW DELHI: At the age of 25, several candidates have emerged as the youngest members of Parliament (MPs) after winning the recent Lok Sabha elections as per the results announced last week.

Among the 25-year-old young lot are Pushpendra Saroj and Priya Saroj, who contested on the Samajwadi Party's (SP) ticket. Pushpendra Saroj, son of five-time MLA and former Uttar Pradesh Minister Inderjit Saroj, entered the political arena as an SP candidate from the Kaushambi parliamentary seat, which was previously held by BJP MP Vinod Kumar Sonkar. Pushpendra won by a margin of 103,944 votes, defeating the sitting BJP MP. Priya Saroj, daughter of three-time MP Toofani Saroj, secured victory in the Machhlishahr seat by defeating incumbent BJP MP Bholanath with a margin of 35,850 votes.

Other 25-year-old winners include Shambhavi Choudhary and Sanjana Jatav, who were fielded by the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) and the Congress, respectively. Shambhavi Choudhary, daughter of Ashok Choudhary, a minister in the Nitish Kumar cabinet in Bihar, won from the Samastipur constituency, defeating her nearest rival, Sunny Hazari of Congress, by a significant margin of 1,87,537 votes. Although Sunny is the son of JD(U) minister Maheshwar Hazari, he was fielded by the Indian National Congress. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had earlier praised Shambhavi as the youngest NDA candidate during a campaign rally.

Twenty-five-year-old Sanjana Jatav, wife of Rajasthan police constable Kaptan Singh, won from the Bharatpur constituency in Rajasthan, defeating BJP’s Ramswaroop Koli by a margin of 51,983 votes. Sanjana, who had contested the 2023 Rajasthan Assembly election but narrowly lost to BJP’s Ramesh Khedi by just 409 votes, hails from a Dalit community and has no political background.

Jatav stands out among the other 25-year-olds who won, as she is not a seasoned politician. Her family had never imagined contesting an election. After her victory, Jatav explained that the people of Rajasthan voted for her due to the excessive religion-related violence, as they were opposed to such actions.