Youth are considered the agents of change in political processes and during every election, their role is always in focus. For the December 1 GHMC elections, 42 out of the 1,122 contestants are aged under 25 years. Of those youngsters, 26 are female candidates and 18 are independents.
A few of them said that they were contesting the elections as their family members were not issued a ticket from the party they were hoping to represent. But most stated that the motivating factor was to serve people.
Shaik Mohammed Rasool (24), who is contesting from Fatehnagar (ward number 118), said he has been actively involved in helping people with government work such as applying for Aadhaar card or pension for the past five years. “When I go to government offices, they mock me by saying that I am a kid and I should bring a basthi leader along. When we try to take help of political leaders, they do not give us basic respect regardless of their stature. I am a B.Tech graduate. I want to be a public representative so that I can get the works cleared without going through the humiliation,” said Mr Rasool, who is gathering money for election campaigning.
One of the youngest contestants, Perumalla Vyshnavi (21) is a first-timer. “I want to bridge the gap between youth and politics,” she said, adding that since she is contesting as an independent candidate, only her history will be considered, which is clean.
M. Karthik Yadav, who is just 21, said that though he has been working for the Congress since 2014, he was not issued a ticket to contest the local body elections. At least three women among the 42 are in the fray as a male family members did not get a ticket to contest.