Guj CM eyes young voters to clinch victory in 2014 polls
MODI’S STRATEGY
NEW DELHI: BJP’S prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi has directed his party workers to motivate all eligible voters to get themselves registered and vote in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.
His assessment is half of youth falling the 18-24 age bracket are not registered or familiar with ways to enroll themselves even though the Election Commission has advertised the process. An estimate done by his key aides show the number of such unregistered voters could be as high as 1.5 lakh in each Lok Sabha constituency.
Modi has said this can be a major factor in ensuring a favourable outcome for BJP, party officials told HT.
An assessment by Modi’s team has shown that the unregistered voters can make a huge difference once they become voters because the average winning margin in parliamentary elections in the 2009 polls was 70,000.
Modi is understood to have pointed out that the BJP lost as many as 100 seats by a margin of upto 1.5 lakh, which could be rectified if more and more young people were to become voters.
Estimates say population of youths between 18-23 years, who will be first time voters in 2014, will be 149.36 million.
The number is over 20 per cent of the 725 million voters who would be eligible to vote the next year.
”There are at least 100 new voters for each booth,” said a BJP official, adding that the party workers would go door to door to check on those who are registered and would motivate those who aren’t. ‘NUKE VENDORS PUSHING CENTRE TO BYPASS LAW’
Arun Jaitley, Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha, on Sunday said the pressure of the ‘hidden hand’ of nuclear vendors continued to remain on the government to bypass the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damages Act, which was passed by Parliament by consensus.
He said if the government of India was planning now to permit the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) to enter into arrange ment with American nuclear vendors by waiving the “right to recourse”, such a step would be contrary to provisions of the liability laws and compromise state revenue.
“The government’s intention to dilute the right of recourse and make it dependent on an agreement has continued,” said Jaitely, referring to reports that the written contract between the NPCIL and the American ven dors would contain a clause to the effect that the operator NPCIL has abdicated and waived off the ‘right of recourse’ as provided under section 17 of the Act, based on the opin ion of the Attorney Genera of India.