Prime Minister Narendra Modi turned 75 on Wednesday, September 17. A day earlier, P Chidambaram turned 80.
Meet some politicians who have passed that political Plimsoll 75 mark.
AMARINDER SINGH, 83
The maharaja of Patiala is politically active, but the BJP doesn't appear to value the former Punjab chief minister as much as his former Congress party once did.
AWADESH PRASAD, 80
Until June 2024, he was just another Samajwadi Party MLA. Then he won the Faizabad Lok Sabha seat a few months after the Ram temple pran pratishta in Ayodhya and was instantly catapulted to national prominence.
P CHIDAMBARAM, 80
The acerbic politician looks almost as he did in 1985 when Rajiv Gandhi picked him from near obscurity to be one of his key ministers of state, a launch pad for many ministerial tenures.
FAROOQ ABDULLAH, 88 on October 21
He may need support to get around, but age hasn't dimmed Farooqsaab's famous flamboyance and connect with Kashmiris, which his only son hasn't inherited.
HEMA MALINI, 77 on Ocrober 16
When she turned 75 in October 2023, getting a Lok Sabha ticket in 2024 seemed unlikely given the BJP's 75 retirement rule. Not only did she get a ticket, she won the right to represent Mathura in the Lok Sabha a third time.
JAYA BACHCHAN, 77
Someone who the media and fellow MPs are wary of crossing given her crochety rep. Her parliamentary career has been as praiseworthy as her celluloid performances.
MALLIKARJUN KHARGE, 83
The leader of India's oldest political party is a forceful figure in the Rajya Sabha and outside despite being in his 80s.
NARENDRA MODI, 75
BJP leaders who turned 75 were divested of their posts and a couple like L K Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi were sent to the Margdarshak Mandal, but that rule clearly doesn't apply to the PM.
AMIT MITRA, 78 on December 20
West Bengal's former finance minister is still in the fray as Mamata Banerjee's special advisor, likely guiding the CM on policy matters especially concerning state-Centre relations.
MURLI MANOHAR JOSHI, 91
At 91, Dr Joshi startled political observers this month when he presented a stinging view of the economy to the RSS leadership, declaring, 'If the economic success of a nation is only judged by income, the important goal of well-being is missed.'
SHATRUGHAN SINHA, 79
Shunned in the BJP after the Modi era dawned, he moved to the Congress, then to the Trinamool Congress.
Elected to the Lok Sabha from Asansol, he seems to have gone low profile unlike his larger than life movie persona.
SIDDARAMAIAH, 78
Political punters who wagered he would make way for D K Shivakumar as Karnataka chief minister midway through the 5 year term have been surprised by his shrewdly thwarting DKS' CM ambitions.
SUBRAMANIAN SWAMY, 86 on September 15
His X posts have not solved this riddle: Who does he dislike more? Narendra Modi or Rahul Gandhi?
YASHWANT SINHA, 88 on November 6
Has been rather low profile after he lost the 2022 presidential election to Droupadi Murmu. He remains a senior member of the Trinamool Congress, which he joined in 2021 after he left the BJP in 2018.