“Vote in the interest of society”

November 13, 2013 11:32 am | Updated May 26, 2016 06:24 am IST - NEW DELHI

A mobile rock band, bike rallies, motivational talks, community meetings and class visits — all this and more will be done to exhort the young to come out and queue up on voting day by the “Youth for Change,” an organisation set up specifically for this purpose by some members of the Delhi’s Akhil Bharathiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP).

The group claimed here on Tuesday that this was not a bid to campaign politically, but in the interest of society.

“We have already spoken to the Chief Election Office here and they will be giving us the go-ahead to start this. The Delhi University Students’ Union is already on board and we also welcome any other organisation that wants to help. We will be targeting youth throughout the city and not just DU [Delhi University],” said ABVP Delhi state vice-president Rohit Chahal, adding that they were planning to enlist volunteers who were going to pledge to get 100 young people each to vote.

“We are not asking anyone to vote for BJP or anything like that. This is just to ask them to vote, for anyone. We are asking them to make the effort of making a voter’s card and then queuing up to vote instead of taking a holiday on voting day,” he said, while adding specifically that they were not planning to take their banners or even chant their organisation’s name while carrying out this exercise. In addition to classrooms in universities and professional institutions across the city, they also plan to stand in metro stations and in popular markets as well as places that are known to be leisure hubs for the young.

“We will be distributing badges that say ‘Youth for Change’ and our volunteers will be wearing special t-shirts with the same message. We will also have open air trucks which will carry popular rock bands from area to area where they will perform and then a small documentary asking people to vote will also be shown,” he said , adding that they were also going to hold meetings in small residential colonies where motivational speakers will be invited to speak.

All political parties and their agendas will be put forth as much as possible. “We have already sent letters to almost every major organisation contesting the Assembly elections, asking them to name the reasons as to why a young person should vote for them. By this we specifically mean the activities that will be done to improve a young person’s life, like say opening a new college in DU or building new hostels and improving transport facilities to and from residential areas to educational institutions throughout the city.”

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.