Why political parties are wooing the young voters

New Delhi: Recent TV ads like 'Priya didi', where an empowered and young woman ensures the government's welfare schemes reach its beneficiaries, reflect the efforts by  political parties to garner the support of the masses, especially the youth.  

As per the latest Census data, the biggest chunk of eligible voters today falls in the 18-35 years category. Election commission estimates suggest that 150 million are expected to be first time voters.

Male and female voters are almost equal, though 66% of the youth voters live in rural areas and only 44% of them are in cities. That's a whopping 378.6 million young voters in a total voting population of 762 million- a crucial constituency parties cannot afford to ignore.

The Indian National Congress, is putting its trust in new media with a focus on promoting new, younger faces like Ajay Maken who's recently been put in charge of the media department;  Shashi Tharoor, who enjoys a huge following on Twitter; and Manish Tewari, Minister for information and broadcasting.

In fact, the party's recent drubbing in the Delhi University elections, where it lost three seats out of four to the BJP's student wing, is being closely studied, since Delhi is  viewed as a microcosm of India.

The BJP has set a target of 10 million new members through a sustained membership drive. Already comfortable in the social media space, it aims to reach out to young voters through online interaction including incentives like meeting with its prime ministerial candidate, Narendra Modi.

BJP Spokesperson, Dr Sudhanshu Trivedi told NDTV, "We are approaching it through four steps. Door to door contact, rallies, the media and finally through social media."

The Aaam admi party is offering a fresh set of leaders to youth impatient for change.

Arvind Kejriwal of the Aam Aadmi Party says, "Most youngsters want to give AAP a chance. We are going to colleges, doing polls."

The youth have demonstrated their ability by active participation in protests that Delhi saw after the December 16 gang-rape- they want to be heard.

Zaid, who is a student at Dayal College gave an interesting analogy. "Earlier few students were interested in the college elections. 400-500 would vote. This time with a little awareness, 1800 voted." He adds, "Today people want to make a difference. They are more aware. You saw them protesting. They don't want to be sitting at home and wondering 'yeh kaise ho gaya'. They want to be the change."

Vani, who just turned 18 and is looking forward to voting in the Delhi elections soon feels, "We have an opinion about things, and we take an initiative and it can actually change the outcome, I think, of elections."

Bhushan agrees, "When we voted in college we felt a sense of empowerment and want to do the same for general elections also."

Political parties say that though eligible, many youngsters have still not registered themselves as voters, and it's this gap that many are working to bridge.