Originally published on the CGS blog on May 22, 2014.
After winning a landslide victory, Narenda Modi is now officially the Prime Minister elect of India. The race was far from close: Modi won by the largest margin in 30 years for a prime ministerial candidate. Alongside Modi, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is set to win far more than the 272 seats it needs to form a majority, a feat not accomplished since the assassination of Indira Gandhi and the subsequent change in public sentiment towards the Congress – the leaders of the current government and BJP’s bitter rival for decades.
India, much like the US, has a two-party system. The key to such an astonishing victory has many parallels to the US election of Barack Obama in 2008, in which the BJP was able to pull in a record number of Millennials (those 35 and under).
In fact, Millennials play a larger role in Indian politics than they do in US politics. Why? The answer, some analysts say, may be as simple as a faster-growing demographic, the effect of which is compounded by the rapid adoption of mobile technology throughout the country.
The city which perhaps best exemplifies this trend is Bangalore. Bangalore is India’s third-largest city and second-fastest growing, where an astonishing 63 percent of its population is under 25. The influence of such a young population has repercussions throughout the state. “We have no toilets in my home village, but everybody has a smartphone, and we all check every day for what’s happening in the [2014] campaign,” states 22-year-old Hanamanthray Biradar, who is from a city in the same state as Bangalore.
What are young voters’ primary concerns in India? Like youth anywhere, they care about creating jobs, enhancing economic opportunities, and fighting political corruption and social inequality.
The political clout of the India’s youth first gained national media attention following the mass protests of a largely metropolitan middle-class, who fought against persistent corruption in their government and society at large in 2012 and 2013. The turmoil this raised was so potent that it helped spawn a new political party: “Their demands for honest governance and an independent anti-corruption watchdog led to anti-graft legislation and the formation of the AAP,” a national media outlet mentioned of the so-called common man’s party.
Because of its youth support, The AAP (Aam Aadmi Party) has risen as India’s most legitimate third party in many years, in conditions of a two-party system that are comparable to the US in their entrenched funding cycles and institutional barriers.
Although the rise of the AAP demonstrates the influence of young voters’ collective will, it also played a fundamental role in the run up to the national election by framing the youth vote as a political imperative for any party. As a local newspaper mentions, “the AAP’s relevance as a movement cannot be limited to its performance in its first national election. Its style of politics continues to capture the imagination of many young people who were previously armchair critics, fatalistic, or disconnected with the politics of the country.”
Being the underdog for almost a decade, the BJP spent many years preparing for the 2014 election and successfully created the best funded and most expansive youth outreach program to date. The BJP put out many ads to the youth encouraging them to participate via their mobiles in the BJP party as well as the 2014 elections.
More than just modernizing their campaign in the years leading up to the election, the BJP as the opposition party supported many of the student and youth protests that occurred in response to the now-famous New Delhi gang rape case. This terrible incident caught the eye of a nation and then the world when a 23-year-old girl was gang-raped and thrown off a moving bus, later succumbing to her injuries. Throughout the New Delhi rape protests, BJP worked with Bollywood to garner support for speedy justice from the government, and broadcasted widely their role in the affair in videos aimed at youth activists. Well-timed popular actions such as these will help win over the loyalty from both female and first-time voters in years to come, and have already paid off in 2014.
The BJP’s youth outreach, activism and a string of corruption scandals, and a general economic slowdown ultimately turned the tables in the Indian elections, the biggest democratic election in human history. The lesson that can be learned from this is that in any democracy, timing and political maneuvering may be important in winning an election, but so are Millennials.
