Young voters made a difference in Andhra Pradesh elections, say analysts

Youth and first-time voters drive TDP, JSP, and BJP alliance to victory in 2024 Andhra Pradesh elections.

An enthusiastic participation by youth and first-time voters played a crucial role in helping the alliance of the TDP, JSP and BJP achieve a clean sweep in the 2024 Assembly elections, according to poll analysts. The main beneficiary of the active turnout of the youth has been the JSP, it is learnt.

Andhra Pradesh recorded a voter turnout of 80.66% during the Assembly and Lok Sabha elections. Of the 4,13,33,702 voters across the State, (2,02,74,144 men, 2,10,56,137 women and 3,421 transgenders), as many as 3,33,40,560 voters had cast their votes. These include 1,64,30,359 men, 1,69,08,684 women and 1,517 transgenders.

It was learnt that there were around 10 lakh first-time voters aged between 18 and 19, of who over 80% cast their votes. Hundreds of young voters, graduates, students and employees working in the IT sector in cities like Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Chennai had travelled to their native places at their own expense to exercise their franchise. A few youth had even flown in from abroad to cast their votes. Representatives of the NDA believe that most of the youth had sided with them in the elections.

The anti-incumbency mood prevailing in the State was exacerbated by the apathy of the State government in not giving the required impetus to the software industry, thus failing to cater to the aspirations of thousands of engineering students graduating every year. The State government’s failure to bring in a job calendar every year as promised in the YSRCP manifesto of 2019 is being cited as another factor that left the youth disappointed, said a member of the Telugu Nadu Student Federation (TNSF), a wing of the TDP.

Naga Sravan Kilaru of the TDP youth wing attributed the NDA’s success to the work done by young MLA candidates of the TDP and JSP, and the young activists who encouraged and inspired young voters to fight against the atrocities committed by the ruling party. He said that leaders like Kinjarapu Rammohan Naidu, Nara Lokesh and JSP chief Pawan Kalyan played a pivotal role in attracting young voters to the party.

JSP leaders opined that their party chief Pawan Kalyan’s Varahi Yatra also helped strike a chord with the youth, inspiring them to start questioning the government’s failures.