Sumaiya, 26, cast her vote at a polling station in Bhopal’s old city area on Friday when Madhya Pradesh went to polls for its 230 Assembly seats.
She has recently finished her studies in dietetics but has little hopes from the next government with respect to employment opportunities. “I have cast my vote because it is my right and duty but whoever comes to power won’t change much here. Both parties [the BJP and the Congress] are very similar in terms of their policies,” she told The Hindu.
Youth and first-time voters of Madhya Pradesh were targeted by leaders from both the BJP and the Congress, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The State has 22,34,861 first-time voters in these elections, as per the Election Commission data.
At a rally in Khandwa on November 5, Mr. Modi had asked the youth and the first-time voters to learn about the Congress rule in the State before 2003 from their elders.
“I will make a special request to the first-time voters and the youth. You have to be alert because you have not seen their regime and don’t know about their dangerous game,” the Prime Minister said, adding that the youth must vote not just for the next five years, but for their future over the next 25 years.
Mr. Modi also extended his greetings to first-time voters early on Friday before the polling began.
Congress national president Mallikarjun Kharge also said on Friday, “We urge the youth who are voting for the first time to participate enthusiastically in this movement for change and vote. New venues of employment are waiting for you and you will be free from the recruitment scams of the State.”
Irregularities in exams
Youth of the State have long been marred by various irregularities in recruitment exams for government jobs, including the recent alleged scam in the Patwari recruitment exams.
On the polling day, however, while they turned out to cast their votes with excitement, many of them had little to no expectations from any party that comes to power.
Ms. Sumaiya was initially hesitant expressing her views fearing she could “get into trouble”.
She later alleged both the parties of indulging in communal politics and doing “useless things”.
“While one does it directly, the other one plays it indirectly. There are so many important things to do here but they are busy in the most useless things like changing the names of places,” she said.
In Morena’s Barauli, a first-time voter Dharmendra Sharma, 21, who is studying B.Sc second year at a government college, said he had dropped his plans of trying for a job after finishing graduation.
“There are people who have spent so many years trying for jobs but have only gotten disappointment. I don’t want to waste time as there are no jobs,” he said.
“We have also gotten bored with the same government and would like to see a change of power in the State. So, let’s see what they do,” Mr. Sharma added.
‘No vast difference’
Paridhi Saxena, 22, also a first-time voter and a UPSC aspirant, disagrees with the welfare schemes promised by the BJP and the Congress and said there was no vast difference between the two.
“It’s just an illusion of choice that you see two leaders [Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and State Congress chief Kamal Nath] but they all have the same way of doing things. But I chose the Congress just for the sake of change,” she said.
“Nobody should feel permanent in a democracy,” she added.
Ms. Saxena also believes that the populist schemes offering money and “free of cost” stuff to women deprive them of much-needed empowerment.
“It feels like as if women are subjects of an auction. One party promises ₹1,000 so the other one increases the rate.”
“This will discourage them from getting education and learning skills to be able to work. This is not something a country that aims to be developed should be doing,” Ms. Saxena says, adding that this will widen the gap between the rural and urban women in terms of empowerment.
Muskan Manglani, 23, from Narmadapuram’s Sohagpur who works in a private firm, said, “I don’t think much is going to change in the lives of people. If they really want to do something, doing something for the women’s safety should be their priority.”
