Youth enthusiastically cast their vote in GVMC polls

Selecting a right candidate is easy in civic polls, say first-time voters

Despite the overall turnout for voting being moderate, a number of youth came forward to cast their ballot for the first time in the urban local body elections here. Many polling stations saw the youth actively coming to vote since the first hour, taking selfies and uploading them in social media. The first time voters expressed that selecting a candidate was easy in ULB elections compared to Assembly polls. While a few have selected candidates based on their party affiliation, there were many who took the decision based on the work done by the local leaders.

“I learnt that the last municipal election was held in 2007, when I was nine-year-old. Now, given the opportunity, I did not want to miss voting this time which could help in developing our smart city. I think I had chosen the right candidate for our locality,” said K. Sirisha, who cast her vote in China Waltair.

Many IT professionals, who are in the city after being given the option of working from home due to COVID -19, had come to vote too. K. Jaya Kishore, a resident of Akkayyapalem, who had returned from Australia after COVID-19, exercised his franchise in the election at Ward No 41. He said that this was the first time he had taken part in voting for municipal elections and had also experienced how ballot voting would be.

“Municipal polls are completely different from Assembly elections. I have gone by the candidate, not by the party. We have close interaction with all the candidates, so deciding a candidate here is easy. We know who can be available for us round the clock, who can help us if there is civic issue in our colony and who will respond immediately if we need some help from the administration,” he said.

Kadambala Harish, a resident of Kancharapalem, who works in an IT firm from Bengaluru, said that he had missed taking part in Assembly elections in the year 2019 due to strict work schedule. However, he cast his vote this time with his family. “We want to be a part of the democratic process of selecting the people who can fight for us,” he said.

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