80 percent West Bengal youth doesn't want to vote in assembly polls: Survey

Kolkata, Apr 17(ANI): A new survey has revealed that around 80 percent of youngsters in the age group of 18 to 25 years do not want to exercise their voting rights in the ensuing assembly polls in West Bengal.

Professor Samit Kar, of Presidency College in Kolkata, expressed his views based on the survey, and said that it is an alarming situation for the country since the youth is the backbone of the country's economy as well the major contributor of the country's development.

"I feel that this a big threat to our democracy which is boastful of the fact that India is the biggest democratic country in the world and the year 2009 Lok Sabha elections we saw that 72 crores electorates of India exercised their voting rights," Professor Kar said.

"So, if this is the scenario, then why some youth having educated and affluent family background, they are not showing enough enthusiasm and it is a fact in some of the metropolitan cities like Mumbai, New Delhi, Bangalore and in Chennai the voting percentage of this particular age group is not enough. It is well below 50 percent," he added.

Samdrita Das, a student, said that the youth was not interested in taking part in the election process, as they do not have faith in the system of the country.

"Everything has to be eradicated from the very basic. If the youth is feeling that leaders are corrupted, the system is not working properly, there are problems in the entire system of governance. There should be some changes at least corrupt leaders should be removed. There should be accountability for the leaders. They should be answerable to the people all the time about the kind of work they are doing," Das said.

"They should meet the aspirations of the people especially the youth because they are going to form the major part of the country later on as they are in the growing stage all together. So there aspiration should be met at the very basic level," she added.

West Bengal's 294-member legislature will have assembly elections in six phases.

The first phase of voting will take place on April 18, second phase on April 23, third phase on April 27, fourth phase on May 3, fifth phase on May 7 and sixth phase on May 10.

The Left Front, led by the Communist Party of India-Marxist or CPI-M, has been in power in West Bengal for more than three decades.

Presently, it is facing a tough challenge from the Trinamool Congress and its ally Congress, who have stepped up pressure by raising simmering issues such as Maoist insurgency, corruption, and unemployment. (ANI)