SILCHAR, March 17 - With less than a month left for the Lok Sabha elections slated to be held across the country in seven phases, all the political parties are gearing up for the next level of hectic poll campaigning eyeing to win majority of seats in the lower house of Parliament.
One segment of the electorate all the parties will look to capitalise upon are the first time voters. While as on January 1, as per the electoral roll, around 900 million people in the country are eligible to vote; over 15 million are between the age bracket of 18-19 years.
For the coveted Silchar Parliamentary seat which comprises seven constituencies of Cachar district, as many as 3, 7,647 voters have been included in the 2019 summary revision taking the total voters tally to 11, 61,178 across all constituencies. There has been an increase of 2.51 per cent in the total number of voters, sources in the District Election Office mentioned. Of the 2, 16,254 electors, 5919 electors have been added in the Silchar constituency in the recent revision.
Meanwhile, sharing their thoughts with The Assam Tribune on Sunday, a few of the voters who had their names enrolled for the first time this year echoed for more employment avenues, especially in Barak Valley together with a cohesive fight against corruption. 20-year-old Panchali Malakar studies BBA at GC College in Silchar says that behind all the gaga, corruption is very much dominant at the grassroots. �I am excited to be a part of the democratic process. However, I feel that corruption is yet to be uprooted. While the rich are becoming richer, the poor in the country is bearing the brunt. There should be a balanced growth in the years ahead,� Panchali maintained. Priyabrata Das, (19) a student from Gobindopur in Cachar too feels that while there has been a lot done to eliminate corruption, the noble ideas framed at the top must effectively trickle down to the lowest strata where things are vastly opposite.�
On the other hand, Agnibeena Dutta Purakayastha, a student from GC College Silchar said, �I would expect the public representative from here to work proactively in giving the voters a clean garbage-free city with much improved roads.�
