Impatient for an economic and developmental upsurge, majority of the youth in Kerala are inclined to vote the Opposition Congress-led United Democratic Front to power, according to a Deccan Chronicle-C fore survey.
And this time around, the youth will be voting over ‘sadak-bijli-paani’ politics rather than on caste and community lines.
In this, they echo the trend seen in elections held in several other states in recent times.
The survey, held between March 3 and 19 among the 18-25 age group, posed a direct question: which party/ coalition are you going to vote if the Assembly elections were held tomorrow.
In all, 42 per cent of the respondents plumped for the UDF while 31 per cent preferred the ruling Left Democratic Front.
This showed that the UDF had an 11 per cent edge over the LDF among the young vots
But there’s also a note of caution as 20 per cent of the respondents were still undecided and there’s another three weeks left for the Assembly elections on April 13. BJP and others attracted 7 per cent of the respondents.
A general survey held about a fortnight ago among voters by C-fore also had shown similar trends.
Based on response percentages, it forecast the UDF getting 77 to 87 seats in the 140-seat Assembly. The UDF had an edge of four per cent over the LDF in that survey.
The youth preference this time for the UDF as opposed to the incumbent coalition jelled with the tradition in Kerala of alternating between rival coalitions.
The youth also spelt out their political loyalties, with 37 percent being pro-UDF and 20 percent pro-LDF. Significantly, 43 percent belonged to the none/neutral segment.
While 58 per cent said they would “definitely” vote in the coming elections, 30 per cent said “may be”.
The youth were uninspired by the LDF, with 49 per cent rating its performance “average”.
Only four percent thought it was “excellent”, but 18 per cent rated it “good”, 19 per cent “bad” and 10 per cent felt it was a “very bad” show in the last five years.
The majority of the youth did not feel enthusiastic about lawmakers who represented them; 56 per cent rated the performance of their local MLA “average”.
One message that rang out loud and clear was that the youth wanted change; 69 per cent said the environment in Kerala was ripe for a huge economic surge.
The state of physical infrastructure-roads, drinking water and waste disposal —would influence 79 per cent of the respondents in the choice of their legislators.