Daijiworld Media Network – Udupi (JD/SS)

Udupi, Mar 29: Tamil Nadu state unit BJP president Annamalai appealed to students and first-time voters here to exercise their franchise in favour of the political parties instead of the candidates.

He was speaking at a function in PPC College here while participating in the Vishwarpanam programme. He was also participating in an interactive programme with students and taking questions from them.

"In India's democracy we have not seen a single person winning the election. If people vote for the party, the candidate becomes accountable to the party and can be pulled up by the party if he goes wrong," he said.

Annamalai said presently India's population comprises 67% youth and a majority of them don't believe in democracy. He said it is necessary to create awareness among them about democracy and also hold meaningful dialogues to nurture good leadership.

The polling percentage in urban centres of Mumbai, Bengaluru and Chennai is low. He said the youths think their votes did not matter and so they do not exercise their franchise. He appealed to the youngsters to go and exercise their votes and develop a belief in the democratic system of governance. He said a section of the youths should shed their anger on democracy and cast their vote.

He said in Indian polity the leaders have a birth date but there is no death date as politicians who are ageing continue to claim that they are young to come to power resulting in the second generation leadership not coming to the fore.

Annamalai said in the last nine years internal security has been tightened. He said the government had been successful in solving many problems encountered in the Central and North east regions of India. In the last one year, about a crore of tourists have visited Kashmir which has become possible because of the abrogation of Article 370.

The TN state unit BJP president said 8,000 villages were electrified and 11 crore toilets were built during the last nine years by the Narendra Modi-led BJP government. He said 99.98% of the households are getting LPG cylinders up from 64% in 2014. He said 64 crore women had opened their individual bank accounts after Narendra Modi assumed power.

PPC administration board member Karunakar moderated the discussion. Capt Brijesh Chowta welcomed. Sriraksha Hegde sang the invocation song while Damodar Sharma introduced the guests and compered the programme.