Our youth don’t favour all elections held in sync
There are some things the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) can take for granted. Such as its hold on the so-called Hindu vote, no matter how defined, and its poll prospects bumped up by the popularity of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Among other such assets, India’s ruling party could list its appeal among bulge-bracket youth, especially those who came of age after the economy was opened up: those born between 1981 and 1996 (called millennials) and those born after that (Generation Z). As found by the latest Millennial Survey conducted by Mint in alliance with YouGov and Centre for Policy Research (bit.ly/48bldNy), BJP support was expressed by almost half its national sample of 12,544 urban youngsters drawn mostly—and evenly—from those two electorally significant age cohorts.
Sure, this slice of Indian youth has a well-to-do skew (by design), but the proportion in favour of the BJP is noteworthy all the same. Not only is it more than its Lok Sabha 2019 vote share of 37.4%, it’s way above the inclination shown to any other political party.
Yet, although the BJP finds youth backing on many issues that are salient in today’s politics, every stance it takes does not strike a chord with the young. As the survey reveals, notable dissonance hovers over the ruling party’s advocacy of central and state elections held in synchrony under the slogan of “one nation, one poll." On the survey’s opinion panel, 63% agreed with the proposition that “Democracy is stronger when we have elections at multiple levels with different frequencies," with just 37% opting for “I think having separate elections at different levels is a waste of resources and time." Given how aptly these two statements capture this clash of views, such a pronounced tilt
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