The BJP flag.
Credit: PTI File Photo
New Delhi: With an aim to reach out to over 1 crore first time voters ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, the BJP’s youth wing - the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha - is mounting a massive drive starting January 13. Through the campaign, the wing will connect with at least 2000 first-time voters in each assembly segment across the country, and once the campaign is complete, PM Modi will address these voters across 5000 locations.
Party president J P Nadda will inaugurate the campaign formally on January 13 from the BJP headquarters, sources said. The BJYM will carry out two drives in each Vidhan Sabha constituency in this time, aiming to reach out to as many as 1000 first-time voters in each drive.
On January 24, PM Modi will address these voters virtually across 5000 locations. LED screens will be put up across these locations, and some voters will have a chance to speak to the prime minister.
Neha Joshi, national vice president of the Yuva Morcha, said that the first-time voters will be assisted in making their voter IDs and the wing will introduce them to the BJP’s ideology.
“These voters would have been 8 years in 2014 when the BJP was voted to power, so they do not know of the UPA-era corruption. We will tell them of the massive difference from then to now,” Joshi said.
Through the campaign, Joshi said, the BYJM will tell these young voters about changes in development in a ‘before Modi - after Modi’ format. “For instance, before 2014, 12 kilometres of roads were built per day; today it's 37 kilometres. While there were 7 AIIMS across the country in 2014, there will be as many as 23 by the time we vote this year,” she added.
As per the party’s estimates, 41% of the total youth vote in 2014 went to the BJP; of these 68% were first-time voters. Even within this demographic, the key push is towards women voters.
“Organisationally, the position of women leaders in the BJP is at an all-time high. The promotion of women in leadership roles is because the PM has said that women must be involved in decision-making. In the Cabinet, 11 ministers are women; we also have the highest number of women MPs. Also, in states, we are electing women to non-reserved seats – in Uttarakhand, 10 zila panchayat chiefs across 13 districts are women,” Joshi said.
This is not the first time the BJP has pursued first-time voters. In the last Parliamentary Party meeting of the BJP in December 2023, Modi asked the party’s MPs to reach out to the young voters. In April 2019, too, Modi spoke to several first-time voters. Sources in the party said that even if the voters do not vote this term, or do not vote for the BJP this term, their data will be available to the party for future campaigns.
In 2019, as many as 1.5 crore young people were first-time voters, and between 2014 and 2019 as many as 4.5 crore people were eligible to vote for the first time. In 2019, the BJP got a significant chunk of the youth vote in major cities like Mumbai, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Delhi, Surat, etc.