After the controversy over the age of UP minister Raja Bhaiyya, at least half-a-dozen more legislators in the newly-elected Vidhan Sabha in Uttar Pradesh are caught in an age row.
A close look at the affidavits filed by these legislators in 2007 and now in 2012 shows that many of them have not grown older — in fact some of them have even grown younger.
The MLAs blamed the discrepancy in age on the voter ID cards issued earlier by the Election Commission in which the age of the cardholder was printed, instead of the date of birth. UP minister Raja Bhaiyya clarified on Thursday that he had been asked by the returning officer to fill the date shown in his voter ID card and hence the discrepancy.
Some of the other such cases include that of senior UP minister Mohd. Azam Khan who, as per records, was 59 years in 2007 but has got younger by two years and is now 57 years in 2012.
State minister Iqbal Mehmood was 58 years in 2007 and has aged by three years in five years. He is now 61 years old.
Another SP minister Riaz Ahmad has got younger by two years. He was 49 in 2007 and is 47 in 2012. State minister, Surendra Patel, has maintained his age at 50 years since the past five years. Congress legislature party leader Pramod Tiwari was 56 in 2007 and after five years, he is now 59 years. Similarly, NCP MLA and former minister Fateh Bahadur Singh was 45 in 2007 and claimed to be 44 years old in this year’s Assembly elections.