Hyderabad: Voters in the 18-35 age group find politics divisive. While the urban voters do not even participate in the process the rural youth flock to exercise their franchise because they are highly polarised, politicians belonging to various parties said at the Leadership Summit held at the Indian School of Business (ISB) on Sunday.
Deciphering the reasons, MIM MP Asaduddin Owaisi said, “Youth do not vote because we as politicians are unable to inspire them. You inspire them, you give them a message and you reflect their real needs. Prime Minister Narendra Modi did this in 2014. What he did was not reflect what they wanted, he reflected their anger against the Congress and created great castles in the air, which the youth fell for.”
A quick show of hands in the audience confirmed that many highly educated attendees did not vote in 2014. Mr Owaisi said that if they did not go out and vote in 2019 he wouldn’t blame them because they had been taken for a ride.
The BJP at the national level and the TRS at the state were able to appeal to youth voters in 2014, which helped the parties win. Politicians said if there was a significant difference in polling in the upcoming elections, it would be because of these young voters.
BJP MLC Ramchander Rao, highlighting the importance of the vote, said that he lost his first MLC election from the graduates constituency by 100 votes. About 3,000 educated voters either did not vote, or their votes were found to be invalid.
They urged the youth to come out and express their opinion, even if it is by choosing the ‘NOTA’ option. TD MP K. Rammohan Naidu said, “There is a certain amount of passion with which the youth come. They have to start by connecting at ground level, especially picking the right candidate to vote. The greatest advantage we have is NOTA. It is a good change to see people opting for NOTA, you are at least saying that you don’t agree with any of the candidates.” In the RK Nagar byelection in Tamil Nadu, more voters chose the NOTA option than the BJP candidate.
Panelists urged that some opinion has to come out from youth through voting. Chevella TRS MP Konda Vishweshwar Reddy said, “If there is NOTA there should be compulsory voting. NOTA has no meaning unless there is compulsory voting.”
