By Jaideep Sarin,
Chandigarh : The newly elected 13th legislative assembly of Haryana is a relatively young one, with the youngest just 29.
Nearly half of the 90 legislators elected this time are 50 years old or less.
While the youngest one, Sukhvinder of the BJP, who trounced Ranbir Singh Mahendra of the Congress, who isformer Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) president and son of former chief minister Bansi Lal, from the Badhra assembly constituency, is just 29 years old, the oldest is INLD legislator Hari Chand Middha (Jind seat) at 72.
At least 44 legislators in the new assembly are 50 years old or less. Of these, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has 23 young legislators, followed by the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) with 12 and the Congress with four.
Haryana itself was created Nov 1, 1966, and will be 48 in the next few days.
Nine of the 13 women legislators elected this time are under the age of 50 years. It is for the first time in Haryana that 13 women legislators have made it to the assembly. The earlier high was 11 women legislators in the 2005 assembly polls.
The election results this time have also sent the first legislator-couple case to the assembly.
Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC) president Kuldeep Bishnoi and his wife Renuka Bishnoi will enter the Haryana assembly as the first elected couple. Both, aged 46 and 40 respectively, have been legislators earlier but were never elected together. Kuldeep is son of former Haryana chief minister Bhajan Lal.
Kuldeep’s elder brother, Chander Mohan, a former deputy chief minister, lost in the polls this time.
INLD leader Abhay Chautala and his sister-in-law (elder brother’s wife) Naina Chautala have also been elected to the new assembly. Naina is the first woman from the political clan of former deputy prime minister Devi Lal to contest an election and win it. Abhay and Naina are 49 and 47 years old respectively.
However, Naina’s son, Dushyant Chautala, who is the sitting Lok Sabha member from Hisar, lost from the Uchana Kalan assembly seat.
The outgoing legislative assembly had three people from the same family as legislators. These were INLD leader Om Prakash Chautala, a former chief minister, and his two sons Ajay Chautala and Abhay Chautala. Om Prakash Chautala and Ajay Chautala were convicted by a CBI court in Delhi in a teachers’ recruitment scam and sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment. Both are lodged in Delhi’s Tihar Jail now.
The BJP will form the government in Haryana after the party won from 47 constituencies.
The INLD followed with 19 legislators while the Congress, which was in power since March 2005, managed to get only 15 seats. Two seats went to the HJC, one each to the Shiromani Akali Dal and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). Five Independent candidates were also elected.
(Jaideep Sarin can be contacted at [email protected])