VIJAYAWADA: Youth participation has emerged as a noticeable feature of the ongoing local body election campaigns across Krishna and NTR districts, with young people joining canvassing teams, visiting households and appealing to voters to support their preferred candidates. Door-to-door outreach, microphone campaigns and meetings with community elders have become prominent features of the election atmosphere.
With municipal elections scheduled for November 1, candidates and party cadre have intensified their campaigns ahead of the 5.00 PM deadline on October 30.
In NTR district, elections are being held for the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation and the municipalities of Jaggayyapeta, Nandigama, Kondapalli and Tiruvuru.
In Krishna district, polling will take place for the Machilipatnam Municipal Corporation and the municipalities of Pedana and Vuyyuru. Elections to Gudivada and Tadigadapa municipalities are scheduled to be held later.
Young campaigners are actively participating in election-related activities, interacting with residents and urging them to exercise their franchise in favour of the candidates they support.
Their involvement in household visits and street-level outreach has added momentum to the campaigns across the two districts.
K Manindra, a young campaign volunteer (Machilipatnam), said participating in an election campaign for the first time had given him a new experience.
“Visiting households, identifying voters, and interacting with them is giving me a new feeling. Earlier, I used to think that politics and election campaigning were not for me. However, after realising the importance of elections and their impact on local development, I decided to get involved and started participating in the campaign,” he said.
Meanwhile, candidates are holding meetings with village elders, neighbourhood representatives and prominent local figures to seek their support. During these interactions, they are highlighting development plans, including improvements to civic amenities and solutions to neighbourhood-level problems.
The campaign has extended beyond public meetings and announcements, with candidates and their supporters focusing on personal interactions with voters. Youth involvement, community-level meetings and household visits are contributing to the growing election activity.
The focus will subsequently shift towards rural local body elections, for which the nomination process was completed on Friday.
Krishna district has 26 Zilla Parishad Territorial Constituencies (ZPTCs) and 352 Mandal Parishad Territorial Constituencies (MPTCs), while NTR district has 16 ZPTCs and 280 MPTCs.
Scrutiny of nominations is scheduled for October 24, while withdrawals and publication of the final list of contesting candidates are scheduled for October 27. Polling for the MPTC and ZPTC elections will be held on November 3, with counting scheduled for November 5. Campaigning for these elections will conclude at 5 pm on November 1.
With the two sets of elections following a staggered schedule, political parties are concentrating on voter mobilisation and grassroots coordination across urban and rural areas.
