‘State inspired EC to launch drive for listing young voters’

Our electoral team played an important role in the previous campaign by adding more than 60,000 young voters

Rajasthan has inspired the Election Commission of India (ECI) to launch a countrywide special drive for maximising the registration of young voters, the state election authorities have claimed.

The chief electoral office of Rajasthan had carried out a twomonth campaign in February to register new voters and listed 22 lakh young voters. “The EC (election commission) appreciated our model and idea to register young voters. During our campaign named Yuva Panjiyan Mahotsav, we added about 22 lakh young voters in two months. Now, EC has directed all states to follow the model we practised for registering the young voters,” Rajasthan’s chief electoral officer Ashwini Bhagat said.

The ECI has decided to launch a special drive in the country from June 1 for maximising the registration of young voters. Under its ‘No voters to be left behind’ drive, the commission has asked states to enroll all new voters, particularly in the age group of 18 to 19 years.

Highlighting the success story of Rajasthan, district election officer and district collector of Bikaner, Anil Gupta said that the state electoral office, while analysing the data of Census 2011, had observed a significant increase in population in the age group of 18 to 19 years. Following this, the chief electoral officer had planned the February campaign.

Additional district magistrate (city) Shailendra Devra said, “Our electoral team played a very important role in the previous campaign by adding more than 60,000 young voters, out of about 1.08 lakh projected voters and the team is very expectant for the coming task.”