New Delhi: In the run up to elections 2009, the focus was clearly on the first time voter. And now, it is on the first time MP. Many of these MPs are in their early 30s and are getting set to begin work as members of parliament for the first time. Let us take a look at what worked for them and what didn't.
Rahul Gandhi's youth brigade has been a runaway success. The party's young, educated, enthusiastic first timers clearly winning over the voters.
The Congress fielded 18 young candidates across the country of whom 12 won. Twenty-eight-year-old Mausam Noor, a first time MP from Malda in Bengal, says Rahul Gandhi's hands-on approach helped win over the youth.
"I feel that because I am young, I represent the face of change and the Congress strategy paid off as people voted for youth."
Says Dr Jyoti Mirdha, Congress MP from Nagaur: "Rahul's magic has worked ... helped get the young voter on board. All young Congress leaders have done so well. Our wins have brought down the average age in Parliament."
Others like Meenakshi Natrajan (36), the AICC secretary sailed through beating the BJPs 81-year-old candidate Laxminarayan Pandey in Mandsaur in Madhya Pradesh.
BJP's Dushyant Singh, son of former Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje, is one of BJP's few young faces in Parliament. Of the 25 candidates under the age of 35 fielded by the BJP, only 5 won.
The Left though stuck to its tried and tested old guard, fielding only 8 young candidates -- most of them in Kerala -- three won as the Left was routed in its bastions of Kerala and Bengal.
Clearly, where other parties decided to play safe, the Congress' gamble paid off. Its youth power, now a formidable force to reckon with, its new young leaders raring to go.