“Vote in the interest of society”

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.”