Hyderabad: Nearly 90 lakh young voters in the age group of 18 to 35 years in Telangana will play a key role in deciding the fortunes of political parties in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections. All the major parties — the Congress, BJP and the BRS — are trying to woo young voters. There are nearly nine lakh voters in the age group of 18-19 and nearly 81 lakh voters in the age group of 19-35 in Telangana.
The Congress gained support of young voters by completing pending recruitments of the BRS regime and distributing appointment letters to nearly 30,000 newly-recruits in the past 100 days. It also issued Group-1 and Mega DSC notifications to fill thousands of vacancies and promised to issue notifications for another 50,000 vacancies soon after election code ends in June.
There was widespread anger against the previous BRS government among youth as it failed to undertake recruitment drives as promised during Assembly elections in 2014 and 2018. Added to this the leakage of question papers of TSPSC Group-1 and other recruitment exams in 2022, cancellation and reconduct of exams further fuelled anger against the BRS.
It is widely believed that youth played a key role in dethroning the BRS government in recent Assembly polls and bringing the Congress to power in Telangana. The Congress gained the support of young voters by promising to fill two lakh vacancies in government departments within a year of coming to power, issuing annual job calendar from 2025 on the lines of UPSC and reconstituting TSPSC Board by scrapping the old Board set up by BRS government which was mired in paper leakage controversy.
Soon after coming to power on December 7, 2023, Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy laid special focus on job notifications and completing pending recruitments. He took steps to resolve court cases which halted the recruitment process to fill 30,000 vacancies. The government resolved legal issues and completed pending recruitments.
Revanth Reddy handed over appointment letters to nearly 30,000 newly-recruits by organising public meetings at LB Stadium in the presence of their family members. This gave a sense of confidence among youth that the present Congress government will fulfil its poll promise of filling 2 lakh vacancies within a year by December 2024
In the recent public meeting held at Tukkuguda on city outskirts, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and CM Revanth Reddy unveiled the Telugu version of Congress national manifesto for Lok Sabha polls which has a special manifesto for youth, titled “Yuva Nyay,” outlining various initiatives aimed at empowering youth.
The major promise made was the ‘Right to Apprenticeship Programme’, which guarantees employment opportunities for college graduates and diploma holders under the age of 25. Eligible youth will be placed in government, public, or private sector organisations to gain practical skills and on-the-job learning. Participants will receive a stipend of Rs. 1 lakh per year during the one-year apprenticeship period.
Around 20 lakh youth below the age of 25 with a diploma or above are expected to benefit from this programme annually across the country. It is anticipated that approximately 10 lakh enterprises with a turnover of Rs 5 crore and above will participate in the scheme, providing training to an average of five apprentices per year.
The cost of the apprenticeship stipend will be shared between the government and the employer, making it financially appealing for businesses while also expanding employment opportunities for the youth.
The manifesto also promised to amend the existing Apprentices Act, 1961, to establish a “Right to Apprenticeship,” which mandates companies to take in apprentices as a percentage of their labour force. This initiative aims to scale up the participation of companies in the apprenticeship programme and ensure the availability of skilled workers in various sectors.
The manifesto also includes provisions for ‘Paper Leak Se Mukti’, introducing new laws to prevent paper leaks in examinations by ensuring the highest standards of integrity and fairness. Monetary compensation for victims and fast-track courts to punish offenders are among the key features of this proposed law.
The manifesto promised to fill all vacant positions in the Central government, totaling approximately 30 lakh vacancies. It also promised to bring in new laws to provide better working conditions and social security for workers in the gig economy.
Under the ‘YuvaRoshini’ initiative, the Congress proposes to allocate a corpus of Rs 5,000 crore for startups, with allotments across all constituencies of India specifically targeting youth below 40 years old.
