Eye on young voters, Modi kicks off Yuva convention series

After women, poor and minorities, Chief Minister Narendra Modi seems to be eying the young voters of Gujarat.

This was evident at the first Swami Vivekanand Yuva Parishad held in Bhavnagar on Saturday as Gujarat State Road Transport buses in large numbers were seen ferrying nearly 50,000 students from colleges across the district to Jawahar Ground in the city.

This comes after Modi and his government held a series of Mahila Sammelans, Garib Kalyan Melas and Sadbhavana Mission fasts in the recent past.

While Modi’s month-long Swami Vivekanand Yuva Vikas Yatra rolled out on September 11, today he kick started the series of Yuva Parishad meets, second of which will be held in Rajkot on Monday.

The move assumes significance given the swelling size of young voters in the state electoral rolls.

At Jawahar Ground, the youngsters — who had started their journey early in the morning to reach the venue before 9 am — showed varied expressions, except boredom. Many of them were eager to evaluate the CM they had heard and read about in recent years. And though Modi arrived two hours late than the schedule time, their energy levels remained high.

Even Modi focused his speech on youth-oriented issues instead of his usual Congress-bashing. He announced to make 62 new hostels that can accommodate 42,000 students pursuing higher education and a chain of hostels for working women near industrial zones.

“He is undoubtedly the best leader in Gujarat. And I am here to see what we can expect from him as we already have a long list of demands,” said Narsinh Ahir from ITI Bhavnagar.

“We feel he needs to do a lot for students right from increasing the number of buses to better hostel facilities,” said Jayesh Mori, a student of Shamladas College.

Besides usual dance and song groups, the presence of shooter Lajja Goswami elated the young crowd at the function, which started with distribution of sports kit to various teams and players.

Sources in the BJP said that Modi had planned conventions strategically in areas which were not covered by the yatra.