Telangana to convene special Assembly session on lowering age for MLAs, MPs: Revanth Reddy

Chief Minister Revanth Reddy announced that special sessions of the Assembly and Council will be held in August to discuss lowering the minimum age for contesting elections to 21 years. He said a resolution would be passed and sent to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for approval.

Hyderabad: Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy on Saturday announced that special sessions of the Legislative Assembly and Legislative Council would be convened in the first week of August to discuss lowering the minimum age for contesting elections to the Assembly and Parliament.

He said the House would pass a resolution seeking to reduce the minimum eligibility age for contesting as an MLA or MP to 21 years. The resolution would be sent to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for approval.

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Addressing the Congress party’s candlelight rally in support of the student protests in New Delhi, Revanth Reddy said the country’s future would change if young leaders aged 21 were given opportunities to serve as Ministers handling key portfolios such as Information Technology and Education.

He said there were 543 Members of Parliament, but the representation of Gen Z was less than one per cent despite the generation accounting for nearly 30 per cent of the country’s population. He stressed the need to amend the Constitution to enable more young people to contest Assembly and Parliament elections.

The Chief Minister said the students’ agitation had forced Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan to step down. However, he said the movement should continue until the families of students who lost their lives received assistance from the Central government, and all cases registered against protesting students were withdrawn.