Guwahati: Even as main political parties especially Congress and the BJP are engaged in a high-voltage campaign in Assam, young voters especially the first time voters are sounding at loss about which party or the candidate to choose as they are hardly convinced about the poll promises made by the parties and have not been swayed by histrionics of poll candidates.
A group of first time voters and students from Darrang College in Tezpur town in North Assam are wondering whom to vote for this election while issues of rampant corruption during the UPA regime, spiraling prices, illegal migration to Assam from Bangladesh and unemployment are playing in their mind.
“Among the main political parties, Congress has miserably failed to bring down prices and check corruption. The problem of illegal migration has remained unresolved in Assam and we the students are staring at an uncertain future as job opportunities have become scarce. The BJP doesn’t seem to be deeply inclined to solve problems of Assam as their national leaders lack proper knowledge of issues dogging Assam and other N-E states. We have not found any of the political parties very sincere in making promise to resolve these. We are first time voters and we are going to vote. But we at loss about which party to vote for. We have to vote on the basis of individual profile of candidates,” they said.
“We have an impression that Narendra Modi has done well in Gujarat and is better equipped to become the Prime Minister but he will have to check corruption first to deliver. The election system in the country should be changed drastically so that money is not used to buy votes. Politicians indulge in and encourage corruption basically to amass fund to be spent in the next election and thereby they corrupt the entire system,” said Dipak Chetry , a student of B.Sc 4th semester in the college.
They also said that election system in the country should be made such that the candidates are left with no option to spend money to lure voters as politicians basically indulge in corruption to ammas wealth required to maintain their vote base and lure voters during polls through money power. Another group of students in Tezpur Central University observes that Narendra Modi of the BJP had no pan Indian image while Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi could not inspire them. They said both the BJP and the Congress looked incapable of checking corruption and creating jobs for the youth.
“We need a party like Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Assam. The AAP failed in New Delhi because other big political parties were resisting its overtures to bring about changes in the system. The VIP culture prevailing among our politicians must go,” said Sabnam Farhana Sultana of the same department o the varsity.
