NEXT-GEN NETAS

Politics runs in their genes, as scions of political families carry forward their legacies

- Avishek G. Dastidar, Kaushik Deka, Amitabh Srivastava, Amarnath K. Menon, Dhaval S. Kulkarni, Arkamoy Datta Majumdar, Prashant Srivastava, Anilesh S. Mahajan and Ajay Sukumaran

MISHA BHARTI, 48

RJD Patalinutra Rihar

THE DEBUTANTS INHERITORS

It was third-time lucky for Lalu's first-born, named after the draconian Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA), the Emergency era legislation that had Lalu in jail when she was born in 1976. Having lost Patliputra both in 2014 and 2019, Misha finally defeated her nemesis, the BJP's Ram Kirpal Yadav, by 85,174 votes to deliver the Lok Sabha seat to the Rashtriya Janata Dal. Something even her father couldn't do in 2009. Misha was the first of Lalu's children to step into politics in 2014 but, in the absence of electoral success, took the Rajya Sabha route to politics in 2016, leaving the state and party in charge of younger brother Tejaswi. 2024 is her first win at the hustings.

BANSURI SWARAJ, 40 |BJP | New Delhi

t cannot be easy living up to your mother's legacy if her name happened to be Sushma Swaraj. But then again there is a good chance that you have inherited her feisty spirit. It also helps that you are fortified by all manner of educational qualifications-a bachelor's degree in English Literature from the University of Warwick, a law degree from the BPP Law School in London, barristership from Inner Temple, London, a Masters of Studies degree from St Catherine's College, University of Oxford. Bansuri was appointed Additional Advocate General to represent Haryana in the Supreme Court.

Starting off as a co-convenor of the Delhi BJP's legal cell last year, she was soon made secretary of the state unit, where she routinely took on the Arvind Kejriwalled government. And it is the Aam Aadmi Party's Somnath Bharti she had defeated by 78,000 votes, staking her claim to represent the New Delhi constituency in the Lok Sabha.

DURAI VAIKO, 52 MDMK Tiruchirapalli, TN