Bihar Exit Poll: Political pundits failed to judge mood of youth

In Bihar which has over 70 million voters, Tejashwi Yadav seems to have made significant inroads into the youth vote, as predicted by the exit polls. Bihar assembly election of 2020 has upset the calculations of all political pundits.

Patna: According to exit poll predictions, most of the youth voters in Bihar aged between 18 and 35 years have voted for the Mahagathbandhan led by RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav. Meanwhile, the calculations of the political pundits seem to have lost its track as Tejashwi got most of the youth votes this time.

There are 7.18 crore voters in Bihar. Of them, 3.56 crore are youth belonging to the age group between the age of 18 and 39 years. It is these young voters for whom employment and occupation matter most. When Nitish Kumar assumed office those who were 18 years old have now become nearly 38 years old.

While political pundits have failed to gauge the mood of the youth, Tejashwi succeeded in appealing to the youth of this age group. The 3.66 crore youth are capable of charting the history of Bihar, a fact that all political parties neglected and faced failure if the results of the exit poll are any indication.

When Narendra Modi was spearheading the BJP campaign in 2014 he too gave importance to the youth. He made black money, corruption and employment his main poll plank.

After severing his links with Nitish Kumar in 2015, Modi had promised the youth of Bihar education, employment and health care in his election campaign. However, the social engineering of caste proved stronger that time and BJP could not make much gain.

The politics of Bihar during the last five year brought to light several political leaders. Youth cannot sit idle waiting for the leaders to act. The youth noticed how the leaders had come to power making promises but did nothing but indulging in politics to retain their power.

They began asking questions as to what the ruling combination had done for the development in the last five years. Nitish Kumar did play sympathy card but political stalwarts failed to understand the fire of the belly people of Bihar were experiencing.

The youth of Bihar are giving a new direction to politics. The youth are prepared to play a decisive role in politics.

The campaigns of Tejashvi Yadav, Chirag Paswan, Pushpam Priya and fielding of Shreyasi Singh by the BJP show that the youth leaders are giving a new direction to politics of Bihar.

As for Nitish Kumar, every leader of JDU has failed to suggest the name of a youth leader who would take over from Nitish Kumar. Nitish Kumar too had made many promises to the youth but failed to implement them on the ground.

The exit poll shows the impact of youth power in Bihar politics. No youth wants to go to other states for the job. They would prefer to remain in their homeland if given an opportunity for gainful employment. It would be only after November 10 that the new youth icon would prove if he is able to meet the aspirations of the young people of Bihar or would tread on the same old path of his predecessors.