Congress party general secretary Rahul Gandhi may have been an ardent supporter of infusing fresh and young faces into the party, but when it comes to distribution of tickets, BSP and BJP have left the Congress behind in giving tickets to the young faces in the age group of 25-45. Ironically, the Congress party has fielded mere 21 candidates in the age group of 25 and 45 whereas BSP has given tickets to 33 candidates in the same age group followed by BJP, which has distributed tickets to 28 young candidates.
Congress party is leading all parties in giving tickets to candidates in the age group of 65-75. The party leaders have given tickets to 6 people who are in their late sixties or early seventies, whereas the BJP and BSP have given tickets to candidates numbering 3 and 1 respectively in the age group of 65-75.
Analysing the data of 278 candidates, Association Democratic Reforms (ADR) and National Election Watch (NEW), group of around 1,200 NGO's, has found that total of 10 candidates have declared their age to be less than 30 years whereas some 40 candidates, of the total analysed, are more than 61 years of age.
Notably, on the education front, most of candidates analyzed by ADR are educated and some of them even are PhD degree holders. Out of total 278 candidates analysed, 181 candidates are graduate or having other higher qualifications. 11 candidates are having doctorate degrees whereas 24 candidates are just 8th class pass. Just one candidate was found illiterate out of total 278 candidates analyzed.
One interesting fact reflected in the analysis report is that out of total 788 candidates contesting elections in the state, only 62 are women and all political parties appeared to be reluctant in giving tickets to women candidates.