Chandrani Murmu – The youngest parliamentarian of world’s largest democratic nation

Chandrani Murmu is a young politician belonging to a tribal community of Odhisha, whose name was entered into history books of India as the youngest parliamentarian ever. She won Keonjhar seat in Odisha in 2019 general elections at the age of 25, thus joining lower house. She represents the regional party, Biju Janata Dal. The record of the youngest parliamentarian was earlier held by Dushyant Chautala of Jannayak Janta Party when he got elected to Lok Sabha in 2014 at the age of 26. As she is a woman candidate, that too from a tribal community, her success at a very young age is really remarkable.

The youngest MP of India, Chandrani Murmu was born in Tikargumura village of Odisha. She owns a political background, as her maternal grandfather Harihara Soren has served as Congress MP twice between 1980 and 1989. She took B. Tech from the Siksha O Anusandhan University in Bhubaneswar in 2017, and was search of government job when she unexpectedly joined politics. As she was educated and owned good communication skills, it helped her to easily connect with common man, and gave her a historic win in Indian politics. She defeated 2-term BJP MP Ananta Nayak by a margin of 67,000 votes. Education and development of industrial sector are her top priorities as a newly elected leader.

Chandrani Murmu – Some interesting and unknown facts

1. Her maternal grandfather is a 2-term parliamentarian of 1980s. Though she was interested in politics, she never imagined that her entry would be at a very young age.

2. None of her family members or close family circle from mother and father’s side have been active in politics for the past two decades.

3. She was an engineering graduate in search of job opportunities, when she got a ticket to Lok Sabha.

4. She was among the top three Lok Sabha candidates with less recorded assets.

5. Hira” and “Chandu” are her pet names.

6. It was her uncle, a retired government official who first asked her to contest elections, which she didn’t take seriously.

7. When she was given party ticket on April 2, 2019 by CM Naveen Patnaik she was in extreme shock. Other leaders too were in surprise with this unexpected announcement.

8. An obscene video of Chandrani with morphed image went viral over social media, soon after she was declared as candidate. Later 5 persons were arrested.

9. She was 25 years 11 month old when she got elected as India’s youngest parliamentarian in May 2019.