6 young leaders who could represent the future of Indian politics

Over the last few years, there has been an increase in the number of political parties in India with a consequent increase in the number of Indian youth joining politics. Aam Aadmi Party, All India N.R. Congress, All India United Democratic Front, Desiya Morpokku Dravidar Kazhagam are few of the more recently founded political parties.

Due to the increase in the number of political parties, there is a vacancy in the number of political leaders or politicians required. There has been in an increase in the scope of politics which has encouraged the youth to take up positions in the various political parties. Politics has increasingly become popular with the rising generation. Political science has gained prominence as an important subject to study as there has been an increase in the number of students taking it up as the main subject.

There are several young leaders in India who could represent the future of Indian politics and the following are a few who could make a big impact in the coming elections and beyond. 

Supriya Sule

1. Supriya Sule – Supriya Sule is a forty nine year old Indian politician who belongs to the National Congress Party. She is presently a Member of Parliament in the 16th Lok Sabha. She is the daughter of the President of National Congress Party, Sharad Pawar. In 2006, she was elected to the Rajya Sabha as a representative of Maharashtra. She is also a trustee of the Nehru Centre in Mumbai. She contested for the elections for the Baramati Lok Sabha constitution and won in 2009. 

She is notable due to her role in leading a state wide campaign against female foeticide which included padayatras, college events, competitions etc. Several rallies have been organised all over Maharashtra ehich concentrated upon abortion of female foetus, dowry system and all those practices which hinder female empowerment. Under her guidance, a separate wing called Rashtravadi Yuvathi Congress has been created to give a platform to young girls in politics. Due to her exceptional contribution to social service, Supriya Sule has been awarded with Mumbai Women of the Decade Achievers Award by ALL Ladies League recently. She is the parliamentarian who has asked the most number of questions in the 16th Lok Sabha.

Jignesh Mevani

2. Jignesh Mevani – Jignesh Mevani, aged thirty six is a politician from Gujarat. He is a member of the Gujarat Legislative Assembly. He represents the Vadgam Constituency in 2017 as an independent candidate. He was supported by the National Congress Party and the Aam Aadmi Party. He completed Bachelor of Arts in English in 2003. He has also received diploma in Journalism and Mass Communication in 2004. He also completed Bachelor of Law in 2013. For three years he served as a reporter for Abhiyan, a Gujrati magazine. 

After the attack on the Dalit men in the Una village in the Saurashtra region of Gujarat by members who claimed to be a part of cow protection group on 11th July, 2016, he led the protest march from Ahmedabad to Una called the Dalit Asmita Yatra which concluded on 15th August 2016. It was attended by around 20,000 Dalits which also included Dalit women. They took a pledge to give up their traditional jobs of removing cow carcasses. Jigesh Mevani ha also led various Dalit protests. Dalits are considered as the “lower caste” in the Indian caste hierarchy is some areas of the country.

Gurmehar Kaur

3. Gurmehar Kaur – Gurmehar Kaur, at just twenty two years of age is already an inspirational figure. She is presently studying English literature at Lady Shri Ram College for Women in Delhi. She is a notable student activist. She is also an ambassador for Postcards of Peace which is a United Kingdom based charitable organization aimed at eliminating all forms of discrimination. In October 2017, she was included in the TIME magazine’s list for “10 Next Generation Leaders”. She is an author and has written a book named “Small Acts Of Freedom” which is a memoir and was published in 2018. She was a speaker at the Harvard US India Initiative held at Delhi in 2018. 

Gurmehar first came into news when she was featured in a video by Voice of Ram. She launched the #ProfileForPeace campaign where she advocated peace between India and Pakistan. In addition to this, she started the Save DU campaign against ABVP(Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad), which is a student federation belonging to the Sangh Parivar, in 2017 where she opposed the violence that erupted at the Ramjas College campus after the lectures of Umar Khalid and Shehla Rashid were cancelled due to the protest by ABVP.

Anurag Thakur

4. Anurag Thakur – Anurag Singh Thakur at forty four years of age is a three time member of the Parliament. He is currently the member of the 16th Lok Sabha contesting from Hamirpur in Himachal Pradesh. He was first elected to the 14th Lok Sabha in May 2008 in a by poll as a candidate of Bharatiya Janata Party. He has been a part of the 14th, 15th and 16th Lok Sabha. Thakus was later appointed as the president of All India Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha. He also led the march from Kolkata to Lal Chowk in Srinagar under the banner of “Rashtriya Ekta Yatra” which was backed by BJP. He is one of the youngest parliamentarians in India till date and has been awarded the Best Young parliamentarian award in 2011. He was the president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India from May 2016 to February 2017. 

He is the initiator of Honour Our Women. It is an initiative which works to create awareness about women’s issues, safety and empowerment by seminars and street plays and with the involvement of celebrities, journalists and parliamentarians. He also became a part of the territorial army in 2016 becoming the first serving member of BJP to become a regularly commissioned officer in the territorial army.

Shehla Rashid

5. Shehla Rashid – Thirty one year old Shehla Rashid Shora is a politician who is a part of the Shah Faesal founded political party, J&K People’s movement. She joined this political party on 17th March 2019. She is extremely vocal about the human rights situation in Kashmir. She is also involved in ensuring justice to the minor under trials and has been active since 2010. She has participated in a seminar demanding to change laws on internet harassment. When Pragaash, an all-female band composed of young Muslim women faced threats of death and rape, she spoke up in their favour and condemned the threats issued against them. 

She was elected as the Vice president of JNU. She also led a student protest demanding for the release of Kanhaiya Kumar, Umar Khalid and others who were arrested on sedition charges. She also led protests to Ministry of Human Resources Development to ask for an increase in graduate student stipends.

Kanhaiya Kumar

6. Kanhaiya Kumar – Kanhaiya Kumar, aged thirty two, is a former president of Jawaharlal Nehru University Student’s Union. He is also a leader of the All India Students Federation which is a radical student organisation and is considered to be close to the Communist Party of India(CPI). He joined student politics when he was in the College of Commerce. He was selected as a delegate to the AISF conference in Patna. Kumar also has an autobiography named “Bihar to Tihar: My Political Journey” which was published in October 2016.

These young leaders might be the ones to represent the future of Indian politics. And could in their turn lead the country. As Warren Bennis said, “Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality”. Irrespective of our own party affiliations, ideologies or beliefs, one thing is for sure-that the youth actively joining Indian politics is an encouraging trend which could lead to India becoming a young nation on the rise to peace and prosperity. 

- Debosmita Bhattacharya


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