Stable government, religious harmony on young voters' minds

New Delhi, Feb 7 (IANS) Young Delhi Saturday came out in huge numbers to vote for a "stable and corruption-free government" that would bring about "religious harmony" and address issues like "women's safety" that are plaguing the city.

Within moments of casting their ballots, these young voters shared their excitement on social networking platforms like Twitter and Facebook and also did their bit to urge fellow-citizens to cast their votes.

"(I) exercised my right to vote! Vote for change, vote for progress," Sakshi Chand, a first time voter from Paschim Vihar said on Twitter.

On Twitter, apart from selfies, the top five trending hashtags included #DelhiVotes, #PressJhaaduButton, #VoteDelhiVote, #Vote4MufflerMan and #IvoteSelfie.

Delhi, which has been under president's rule for over a year now, was last
governed by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) for 49 days - and to "break this jinx" the
voter turnout was huge with equal participation from different age-groups from across the city.

Expressing his excitement, Nikhil Anand, a 22-year-old Merchant Navy officer, told
IANS: "Development was the first priority while casting my vote. I want a stable
government, good governance and the issue of women safety to be addressed."

"I want that the representative of my area must work for the development," he added.

However, following the many incidents of communal tension and attacks on places of worship, issues like "religious harmony" came first for many young voters like Srimanjari Basu.

"I made sure that I'd vote this time because I wanted to raise my voice against those who, in my view, are doing nothing to stop the spread of communalism in this country and are keeping silent about increasing attacks on places of worship of minority communities, especially churches," the 21-year-old Basu told IANS.

Voters proudly flaunted the indelible ink mark on social networking sites as
proof of exercising their democratic right.

While some shared details of which party they voted for, many chose to urge
the people to vote for better civic amenities like good roads.

"I don't care who comes to power. It is high time the national capital becomes a
world-class city," Rajat Thakur said.

arun Kohli tweeted: "Go Delhi, go out and vote for development! You won't get
this chance again for next 5 years."