Until now, political parties generally ignored the young and first-time voter. In the upcoming Parliamentary elections, the focus is on garnering the youth vote. The young today make up a sizable chunk of our electorate. Sixty-five per cent of the voters are under the age of 35. There will be a 100 million first-time voters this election.

Except for the brief period when Rajiv Gandhi ruled the country, politics in India has generally been considered the preserve of the elderly. Our Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is 76 and Leader of Opposition L K Advani is 81. Singh's predecessors were equally elderly. Morarji Desai demitted officer when he was 83, Charan Singh at 78 and both Jawaharlal Nehru and Narasimha Rao at 75.

The first lot of Congress posters in Delhi displays a trinity of Sonia Gandhi, Manmohan Singh and Rahul Gandhi. Now some king sized posters have appeared in the Capital where the only photograph is that of the handsome, dimpled 39-year-old scion of the Gandhi family. Is the Congress telling us subtly that Rahul is to be its Prime Ministerial candidate sooner than we thought? After all, his father was only a year older when he became Prime Minister. Or, is Rahul being projected simply to appeal to younger voters? Rahul, himself, has often played upon the theme of youth and even called for a youth quota in the distribution of Parliamentary seats. The clutch of personable young MPs seen in Rahul's company, such as Sachin Pilot, Milind Deora, Jitin Prasada, Sandeep Dikshit and Priya Dutt add to the party's youthful image.

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