Hyderabad: Young candidates fighting an unfair battle?

HYDERABAD: ‘Youngsters’ are not much behind when it comes to contesting in elections as 32 of them will be locking horns with the seasoned politicians from four constituencies located in and around Hyderabad in the upcoming Lok Sabha election on April 11.

Of the 32 candidates aged under 40, 12 each are contesting from Chevella and Secunderabad and four each from Malkajgiri and Hyderabad constituencies.

These candidates, who are contesting mostly as independent or from not so well known political parties, said that the current political scenario in the state does not allow the rise of youth leaders.

“You won’t see a Kanhaiya Kumar or Hardik Patel emerging from the Telugu States. Politics has become a family profession here,” said Ravi Kumar Vodela, who is contesting from Secunderabad constituency as an independent.

He said that the youth are discouraged from entering politics and it is always considered as the last option which should ideally be opted after one has ‘settled down’ in his life.

“My family and 90% of my friends are not on board with my idea of getting into politics,” said the 36-year-old Vodela adding that most of the youth are not pro-politics and prefer joining an NGO or other such organizations to serve people. He said that when politics is the answer for each and every problem, there is no point of staying away from it.

The candidates said that funding is one major problem for debutant politicians as not many come forward to lend support to an unknown name.

“All my funding came from my friends and family,” said Sai Kiran Gone, who is contesting from Malkajgiri constituency adding that his friends and fellow students are also helping in campaigning so as to reach as many people as possible in the constituency.

The under 40 candidates said that crowdfunding too is not easily available as they only get funding if the ideologies match. They said that most of them tend to extend moral support, but not financially. They, however, said that social media and smartphones came as a boon for them as they could reach far more people with the help of them.

They said that unless people start accepting youngsters, not many would be willing to contest in elections.

“It’s not political parties or independents who are going to decide youngsters fate in politics, but people. If they start electing young and qualified candidates as their leaders even parties will be forced to field such candidates,” said Dornala Jaya Prakash, who is contesting from as Hyderabad constituency as a candidate of New India Party.

They said that everyone is looking for a change in the way the state or center is being run, but no one wants to do it themselves or support someone who is willing to do it without considering how much they are getting to vote or if the candidate is from their own caste.

The independent candidates also said rued about the fact that they only get symbol 10 days before the elections and leaves them practically no time to popularize their symbol and sensitize voters.

Except for the Telangana Rashtra Samithi who fileded 32-year-old Talasani Sai Kiran, who is the son of Sanathnagar MLA and Animal Husbandry Minister in Telangana government Talasani Srinivas Yadav, no other major party has fielded a young candidate from these constituencies.