31st Mar 2019 11:03:PM Editorials
Eastern Sentinel Arunachal News

It would hardly be an exaggeration if the forthcoming battle to rule the largest democracy of the world is termed as an epic. There will be more than 90 crore eligible voters, approximately 2,000 political parties,about 8,000 candidates, 543 constituency seats and will cost the exchequer more than Rs 50000 crore. These figures have emerged very recently and as time goes by more are surfacing, and they are no less interesting. Festival of democracy after all is also a festival of data & figures.

It has been estimated that the 17th Lok Sabha election will have an addition of 2.3 crore first-time voters and among them there will be over 1.5 crore electors in 18-19 year age group who have attained the voting age on January 1 this year and will exercise their franchise. And more significantly, as it comes out from analyses, these youth may hold the key in as many as 282 seats across 29 states, more than the numerical majority required in Lok Sabha. In fact, there will be an average of 1.49 lakh first-time eligible voters in each Lok Sabha constituency this time and this figure is larger than the winning margin in 297 seats in 2014.Again, if the actual turnout out of the total number of eligible voters is the ultimate factor in any electoral process, estimates suggests that these first-timers will turn out in very large numbers, in more than 90 percent, which will be presumably way ahead of the national turnout percentage.

 

Thus, it needs hardly any elaboration that this youth segment, also now being called as Generation Z will be an unputdownable factor this time more because vote swings do change calculations in Indian electoral dynamics and these first-time votes, in all probability will be a component of this criticalvote swing factor. All political parties, seasoned and as well as newly formed have realized this reality and have launched strategies to woo this young electorate and confirm their loyalties. The race is now neck-to-neck and devising the right narrative exclusively for this Gen Z is now their top most priority. Noticeably, all have taken refuge of the social media platforms to reach out to them.

The youth is undoubtedly the most dynamic fragment of population in any nation and the young Indian voters are now well informed, educated and tech-savvy which would help them in shaping their decisions.

It is often repeated that the only thing predictable about Indian elections is that they are unpredictable. But this time, it is highly predictable that this debutant block, as an emerging defining force of Indian politics will be the real kingmakers. 


Kenter Joya Riba

(Managing Editor)
      She is a graduate in Science with post graduation in Sociology from University of Pune. She has been in the media industry for nearly a decade. Before turning to print business, she has been associated with radio and television.
Email: kenterjoyaz@easternsentinel.in / editoreasternsentinel@gmail.com
Phone: 0360-2212313

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