After the movement in Nepal, Balen Shah, only 35 years old, has become the Prime Minister. Becoming Prime Minister at such a young age is shocking to everyone because many of the Prime Ministers before him were more than 60 years old. The oldest minister in Balne Shah’s government is 51 years old and the average age of ministers of the central government of India is more than 60 years. The youngest minister in India is 38 years old and the oldest minister is 81 years old. Be it the Chief Ministers of the states in India, ministers of the Central Government or ministers in the state governments, the average age of everyone is more than 60 years whereas the age of almost a quarter of the voters in India is less than 30 years.
This trend shows that in many countries the public is young but their representatives are relatively older. If we look at the case of India, most of the people holding top positions are quite old. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is 75 years old and by the end of his current term, he will be 78 years old. President Draupadi Murmu is 67 years old and will be 68 years old by the end of her term next year. The new Vice President C P Radhakrishnan is 68 years old and will be 72 when his term ends. The same trend is also visible in the age of the Chief Ministers, MLAs and Ministers of the country.
elders are running the government
Before Balen Shah, the leaders running the government of Nepal were relatively old. KP Sharma Oli is now 74 years old, Pushp Kumar Dahal is 72 years old and Sher Bahadur Deuba is 80 years old. Now there are a total of 15 ministers in Balen Shah’s government, out of which 10 ministers are below 40 years of age. If we compare this with India, out of total 72 ministers of the Government of India, only 2 are below 40 years of age. Leader of Opposition in Parliament and prominent leader of opposition, Rahul Gandhi is also 55 years old. The age of the Chief Ministers of the states of the country is also around 60 years.
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After the movement for change of power in Nepal, the government has changed and now in a way the government called ‘Gen Z’ has come. Similar movements took place in Bangladesh and there Tariq Rahman, who was more than 60 years old, was elected Prime Minister. Anura Kumara Dissanayake, who became the new President after a huge uproar in Sri Lanka, is 57 years old. In this case, Balen Shah is the only leader who is very young. If we look at the population, 48 percent of the population in Sri Lanka, 53 percent in Bangladesh and about 60 percent in Nepal is below 30 years of age, but except Nepal, the people running the government in all these countries are ‘old’.
In India, 65 percent of the population is below 35 years of age, but the representatives of people in this age group are very less. We have analyzed the age group of people of India who are choosing their MLAs, MPs, Ministers, Chief Ministers and Prime Ministers. In this report, we have tried to know what is the average age of the Chief Ministers of all the states of the country, the ministers of their governments and the ministers of the Central Government.
How young or old is the central government?
At present there are a total of 72 ministers in the central government including Prime Minister Narendra Modi. There are 30 cabinet ministers, 37 ministers of state and 5 ministers with independent charge (ministers of state). There are 22 percent ministers in this cabinet whose age is more than 70 years. There are 57 percent ministers who are more than 60 years old. Including Prime Minister Modi, there are a total of 16 ministers whose age is more than 70 years. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and V Somanna are 75-75 years old. Rao Inderjit Singh is 76 years old and the oldest minister Jitan Ram Manjhi is 81 years old.
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The youngest ministers in this government are Raksha Khadse and Ram Mohan Naidu, both of whom are 38 years old. Of these, Ram Mohan Naidu is the only cabinet minister who is 38 years old. Raksha Khadse is the Minister of State. Out of the total 30 ministers included in the cabinet, the youngest ministers are Chirag Paswan (43) and Ram Mohan Naidu. The remaining 28 cabinet ministers are above 50 years of age. Out of 72, there are only 11 ministers whose age is less than 50 years, that is, the percentage of ministers below 50 years of age is only 15. In this way, the average age of central government ministers is more than 60 years.
In comparison, if we look at the age of voters, a different picture is seen. Before the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the Central Election Commission had estimated the total number of voters in the country at 96.8 crore. Out of these, 1.85 crore voters were between 18 to 19 years of age, that is, they were going to vote for the first time. There were 19.74 crore voters whose age was between 20 to 29 years. That means out of 96.8 crore voters, there were 21.59 crore voters whose age was less than 29 years.
Now in comparison, there is not a single minister in the Central Government whose age is equal to the age of this class. This figure shows that 22 percent of the country’s voters did not find a single minister of their age in the central cabinet.
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What age group are the people of India electing their MPs?
If we compare the Lok Sabha elections of 2019 and 2024, the average age of MPs decreased slightly. The average age of leaders who were Lok Sabha MPs from 2019 to 2024 was 59 years. After the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, it declined and the average age remained at 56 years. 11 percent of the 542 MPs were below 40 years of age. The age of 38 percent MPs was 41 to 55 years.
How young or old is the Chief Minister?
There are a total of 31 Chief Ministers in the country, including 28 states and three union territories with assemblies. The oldest Chief Minister among these is Pinarayi Vijayan of Kerala who is 82 years old. Out of 31, there are 7 Chief Ministers whose age is 75 years or more. There are a total of 10 Chief Ministers whose age is 70 years or more. Out of 31, 15 Chief Ministers are above 60 years of age, that is, almost half of the Chief Ministers have crossed the age of 60 years. There are only two Chief Ministers who are below 50 years of age.
This shows that the leaders leading the states are also elderly and they are also succeeding in forming the government again and again. At present, the youngest Chief Minister is Pema Khandu of Arunachal Pradesh, who is 46 years old. At second place is Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad Sangma, who is 48 years old. Apart from these two, all other Chief Ministers are 50 years of age or older. Nitish Kumar, who has been running the government for a long time, is 75 years old, Mamata Banerjee is 71 years old and Pinarayi Vijayan is 82 years old.
Deputy Chief Minister is also beyond 60
There are 16 states or union territories in the country where there are one or two Deputy CMs. There are a total of 26 Deputy CMs. Out of these, there are 10 states where there are two Deputy CMs each. In the case of Deputy CM, the youngest Deputy CM is Harsh Sanghvi of Gujarat, who is only 41 years old. At the same time, the oldest Deputy CM is TR Zeliang of Nagaland, who is 74 years old. If we calculate the average age of all these Deputy Chief Ministers, it is also 60 years. This shows that youth are given less priority even in the second line of leadership.
What age are the ministers of states?
There are approximately 589 ministers comprising 28 states and 3 union territories. This also includes the Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister. After analyzing the affidavits given by these leaders, their social media profiles and information received from other sources, it was found that the average age of all the ministers of the country is about 58 years. There is a possibility of one or two percent more or less in this data but it is certain that the average age of ministers cannot be less than 55 years.
We found in our analysis that the ministers of Punjab have the lowest average age. Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann’s age is 52 years and the average age of his government ministers is 47 years. At the same time, the average age of ministers of Puducherry government is 65 years. There are 24 out of 31 states/union territories whose average age of ministers is 60 or less. The average age of ministers in 7 states/union territories is more than 60 years.
What is the condition of electoral states?
If we talk about electoral states, the oldest Chief Minister is Pinarayi Vijayan of Kerala, who is 82 years old. After him is Rangasamy of Puducherry who is 75 years old. West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee is 71 years old, Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma is 57 years old and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin is 73 years old.
V D Satheesan, who is contesting for the post of Chief Minister from United Democratic Front in Kerala, is 61 years old, Ramesh Chennithala is 69 years old and K C Venugopal is 63 years old. Kerala BJP President Rajiv Chandrashekhar is also 61 years old.
Gaurav Gogoi, who is considered the undeclared CM face in Assam, is 43 years old. Thalapathy Vijay, who is contesting elections for the first time in Tamil Nadu, is 51 years old and former Tamil Nadu CM and AIADMK leader EK Palaniswami is 71 years old. Mamata Banerjee herself is 71 years old and the leaders challenging her like Dilip Ghosh are 61 years old and Shuvendu Adhikari is 55 years old.
This analysis shows that the options before the country’s population are only aged leaders. Most of the political parties rarely give opportunities to young leaders or even if they do, their percentage is very less. This is the reason why the representation of youth is less in the state assemblies and the country’s Parliament. The same trend is visible even in the officials of political parties. MLAs and MPs are elected from among these leaders and they become ministers, chief ministers and prime ministers.
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