Of the 7.18 million rupee voters in Bihar, nearly 3.66 million rupees are under the age of 39. In other words, half of the Bihar electorate are young voters. This figure includes 78 lakhs of young people who will cast their votes for the first time. Given the differences in caste, gender, religion, and finances between them, could there still be any resonance among this potential electorate when he goes to the polls for the next two weeks?
“I have been traveling through many districts for several days. And I can tell you that caste barriers are melting in various places for young people,” said Kanhaiya Bhelari, senior journalist and managing editor of a Bihar-focused news portal called Newshaat. Many voters have only seen Nitish as the Chief Minister for the past 15 years and while they may not be mad at him, they wouldn’t mind looking at a new face.
“It’s a bit like Sachin Tendulkar in his last days. Everyone thought that although he was a great player, he needed to rest now. It was time to look at the young people with a lot of hunger in their stomach, waiting in the shadows to prove their worth. “said Bhelari.
The famine Bhelari mentioned arguably has been further fueled by the polling promises made by RJD’s Tejashwi Yadav. Many agree with the view that the 10 lakh of government jobs he has promised may be undeliverable, but no one disputes the fact that he has only led the election campaign around this particular issue.
According to data from the Center for Monitoring the Indian Economy (CMIE) which has been cited by various media outlets, the unemployment rate in Bihar in April increased by 33 percentage points to 46.6%.
According to CMIE data, the unemployment rate for people between the ages of 15 and 29 was the second highest in the country at 30.9%. Bihar also has the second highest number of casual workers after Andhra Pradesh. Many of these workers, hundreds of those who returned to their homes in Bihar after the national lockdown was announced, have yet to find suitable jobs. At that time, the promise of a stable job in the government, as assured by Tejashwi Yadav and mentioned in his party’s manifesto, is a great attraction for young people.
“In a way, Tejashwi Yadav is in the same space today as Narendra Modi in 2014. It is not a perfect comparison, but Tejashwi Yadav knows that it needs something to fight against the coordinated power of two parties that have been in power for a long time. He knows that it may not be delivered. Even young people know that the 10 lakh of jobs may not materialize. But just as the prime minister promised Rs 15 lakh on each account and subsequently 2 crore jobs, Tejashwi is also playing a game. bet, “added Bhelari. .
Contrary to him, Surendra Kishore, a senior political journalist who for decades has reported for almost all major Hindu dailies, says that while young people may have their own aspirations, the promise of 10 lakh work will have no major impact. in the ground.
“Yes, employment is a big problem. But what Tejashwi says, I think few people really believe in him. From my experience, I can tell you that his promise of work will not have a decisive effect on the result of the polls,” he argues. Kishore. . He says people have not forgotten that during father and mother’s time as chief ministers, more than 5 lakh vacancies were left unfilled. “Not all vacancies will be filled for various reasons. But given his parents’ background, why would the people of Bihar believe him? Everyone knows that there are not enough resources to provide employment for so many people. More than 55,000 crore they are required. Where will they come from? “Kishore asks.
Perhaps it is with the huge young electorate in mind, who have not seen the times of Lalu Yadav and Rabri Devi as chief ministers, that Nitish Kumar without fail, at every rally, addresses young voters and tells them about the previous RJD regime . . At a Sankalp e-rally 12 days ago, Nitish Kumar said: “I will talk to young people about this every day. It is my duty to create a suitable space for the development of young people. We are trying to ensure that the situation is created.” . so that no person from Bihar has to go looking for work. ”He also said that there was no way Tejashwi would be in a position to fulfill this 10 lakh job promise.
While posting the manifesto on Saturday morning, Tejashwi Yadav, head of RJD and the face of the main opposition minister, gave the reason behind his promise of 10 lakh government employment. “I have been asked several times about how I will create these jobs. First of all, there are 4.5 lakhs vacant in various government departments, from education to health to police, already assigned but not filled under the current regime. On top of that , we have calculated that 5.5 lakh of additional jobs are required for the Bihar administration to be on par with the national average, “said Tejashwi. He gave the example of Manipur, where for every lakh of population, the state had employed 1,000 policemen. “In our state, the number of police officers per lakh is 77. These are some of the corrections we must make, for which we will create an additional 5.5 lakh of vacancies.”
The funds for this, he said, will come from the state budget of Rs 2.13 million lakh of which only 60%, according to him, was spent. “The remaining 40%, which translated into about 80 billion rupees, will allow us to hire the 10 lakh of government employees, which is what we promised will happen after our first cabinet meeting,” Tejashwi said.
The fact that employment has become a real issue, as a welcome change in an assembly election, was made clear by how in a day of criticizing the blow from the Tejashwi election, BJP promised nearly double the amount. of jobs in your manifest. Many wondered if BJP and JD (U) considered RJD’s promise impractical, how he planned to keep his own promise.
Employment may or may not become the deciding factor when young people go to the polls in the next fortnight to cast their votes. But what cannot be denied is that these polls will eventually see a generational shift in Bihar’s political landscape. A new echelon of leadership that includes leaders like Tejashwi Yadav, Mukesh Sahani and Chirag Paswan, which follows leaders like Lalu Prasad Yadav, Nitish Kumar, Sushil Modi and Ram Vilas Paswan, that no longer exists, spent three decades virtually dominating the space political in the state, and reflecting the demographics of the electorate on the ground.
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