New Delhi: Ever since he was appointed as the national vice-president of Janata Dal-United (JDU), political strategist Prashant Kishor Pandey has been focusing on increasing the party’s footprint both in Bihar and in the national capital, especially among the youth.
Under the aegis of “Youth In Politics”, a platform that was recently launched by Pandey and his organisation Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC), he is holding weekly meetings with youths between the age of 18, who are first-time voters, and 35 years in the city. The objective of the meeting is to bring in more young people into JDU fold and create a team of JDU supporters in every ward and district of NCR.
In Delhi, these meetings are presently being conducted from a residential house in central Delhi and those who register for the meeting through the I-PAC websites are required to fill in a questionnaire regarding their political ambitions and inhibitions. Following this, the participants are called to attend the meeting, during which a selected few are also given the chance to interact with Pandey personally.
As per rough estimates, Poorvanchalis, as natives of eastern Uttar Pradesh and western Bihar are called, constitute a little more than one-third of the total Delhi population. JDU, a Bihar-based party, has presently almost zero presence in Delhi despite having a more than sizable number of Biharis residing in the NCR. In the 2015 elections, the party only got 1388 votes which was 0.02% of the total vote share. In the 2013 polls, it had got 68,812 votes due to Shoiab Iqbal who contested on the party ticket and won from the Matia Mahal constituency. Later, he joined the Congress.
“The idea behind this initiative is two-fold – first is to make the youth aware of the power of their vote and how politics is not as bad as it is portrayed. It will attract good people into politics. Secondly, JDU needs to expand its footprints in other states so that it gains more say in the national politics too,” an I-PAC functionary said.