Kolkata. This time the 2026 assembly elections in West Bengal have become not just a fight for change of power, but a test of balancing between new and old politics. Especially young voters seem to be playing a decisive role in this election.
In this state with around 7 crore voters, a large number are youth who will vote for the first or second time. This is the reason why both Mamata Banerjee led TMC and BJP parties are working on a new strategy to woo the youth.
Mamta’s ‘Youth Card’
This time TMC has made a big change in ticket distribution and has given opportunity to youth in place of many old faces. The party has tried to bring forward the new generation by reducing the share of elderly leaders. Along with this, Mamata government has taken a gamble of providing direct financial help to the youth by announcing schemes like ‘Yuva Sathi’.
Under this scheme, unemployed youth aged between 21 to 40 years have been promised Rs 1,500 every month. Political analysts believe that this strategy is an attempt to extend the already successful model of social schemes to the youth.
BJP’s ‘Young Candidate’ formula
On the other hand, BJP has also made major changes in its candidate selection to attract young voters. By giving tickets to a large number of young candidates, the party has given a clear message that it wants to give representation to the new generation.
BJP’s emphasis is on issues like ’employment, industry and transparency’. The party alleges that problems like corruption in the state and ‘cut money’ at the local level have limited the opportunities of the youth. This is why BJP is trying to pursue development based politics with the slogan of ‘Sonar Bangla’.
youth stakes in statistics
The decisions of both the parties in this election clearly show that the focus is entirely on young voters. TMC has kept the age of most of the candidates below 60 years. Whereas more than 75% of BJP candidates are below 55 years of age and a large number of candidates are below 40 years of age.
BJP has also given tickets to youth with professional background like teachers, doctors and lawyers. These figures show that this time along with experience, youth energy is being given priority. Many survey reports show that the graph of BJP is increasing rapidly among the youth.
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