Indian Politics & Policy Volume 3, Number 1, Spring 2020 | Page 105

The Youth Vote in Lok Sabha Elections 2019
the NDA government to fulfill many
of its promises. Many regional parties
also launched youth-centric campaign
programs. These youth-specific events
suggest the importance of young voters
for political parties. Congress also
highlighted the Rafale fighter aircraft
deal and alleged wrongdoing by the incumbent
government on the national
security front. On the economic front,
it promised a Minimum Income Guarantee
(Nyunatam Aay Yojana) for poor
households. The controversy surrounding
the Rafale aircraft deal did not work
in favor of the party. Despite the fact
that a huge proportion of young Indians
compared to others had heard of
the controversy, a similar proportion
believed that there was some wrongdoing
by the government. Although young
voters felt that there has been wrongdoing,
close to quarter of them still voted
for the BJP (26 percent); this proportion
among others was one in every five.
However, a much higher proportion of
youth had heard of the NYAY scheme
(66 percent vs. 57 percent), but a deficit
of trust in the execution of the proposed
NYAY scheme prevented the party from
receiving benefits in term of votes. The
data suggest that among those who had
heard, young voters were less likely to
believe that that Congress would fulfill
this promise if elected to power (Table
11).
Table 11: Congress’s Weak Campaign Strategy
Heard of Congress’s promise of a Minimum Income Guarantee (Nyunatam
Aay Yojana) for poor households
Youth
Others
66 57
(If heard) Congress will fulfill this promise if elected to power 32 35
Heard of controversy surrounding the Rafale aircraft deal 64 48
(If Heard) There has been some wrongdoing by the government in the
Rafale aircraft deal
38 38
Those who feel that there was wrongdoing, but still voted for the BJP 26 20
Source: CSDS data unit
Note: All figures are in percentages
Based on the Rafale controversy,
Congress launched a campaign Chowkidar
Chor hai that failed miserably. The
BJP took to this by counterattacking
Congress by using Main bhi Chowkidar
and prefixing the twitter handle of
ministers by Chowkidar. Thousands of
BJP supporters joined in as well. Although
Congress supporters tried using
berozgaar (unemployed) as a prefix to
their twitter account but it did not work
in its favor. 19 Two in every five youth
who had heard the slogan Chowkidar
Chor hai voted for the BJP (43 percent).
Congress further failed to highlight
issues like unemployment, demonetization,
GST, economy, and farmer-distress
in order to mobilize the voters in
their favor. 20
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