BRS to adopt Catch them young' strategy

Hyderabad: For the first time since its founding in 2001, the BRS, which is aiming for a hat-trick victory, has placed a special emphasis on youth outreach initiatives for the December 2023 Assembly elections, targeting first-time voters, young voters and students.

The party's plenary meeting on April 27 at Telangana Bhavan will design an action plan to win the support of the youth and students. BRS president and Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao has issued instructions to party leaders to hold special 'Athmeeya Sammelanams' for students and youth covering every Assembly constituency.

When the new academic year starts in June, the BRS leadership has decided to conduct a campaign at universities and colleges for six months. The party's student wings have been encouraged to host special events on campuses in June to welcome new students to colleges and universities.

The party's student and youth wings are set to be activated and strengthened by launching a special drive to enlist students beginning in June and forming party student and youth committees from the mandal to the state level.  According to surveys commissioned by the CM, the party's support base among youth and students aged 18 to 40 years was considerably lower when compared to those over the age of 40.

The party has a large support base among people between the ages of 40 and 70 due to welfare schemes. According to the party's voter data, almost 3.5 lakh new voters (18-19 age range) have registered in Telangana during the last Assembly elections in 2018. Of the total of 2.99 crore voters in Telangana, it is estimated that 60 per cent are between the ages of 18 and 40, whom the party hopes to engage through specific outreach campaigns over the next six months.

The MLAs would be tasked with organising these sammelanams for the youth and students, interacting with them, and explaining how the BRS government's efforts had benefited them over the last nine years.

The objective is to inform students about the BRS government having started a recruitment drive, attracting private investment of more than ₹ 2.5 lakh crore through its initiatives which has provided direct jobs to 16 lakh youth and indirect jobs to another 16 lakh.

The 'sammelanams' will also explain how the BRS government has created the most jobs in the IT sector in the last eight years, employing eight lakh people and creating five lakh direct jobs in the life sciences sector, in addition to extending the IT sector to Tier-II cities by constructing IT Towers in districts and employing local youth.