For nearly three months, young people have been protesting in Delhi and other cities. Will these protests have an electoral impact? Sreenivasan Jain travels to Uttar Pradesh, which goes to the polls early next year, to find out what the state’s Gen Z is thinking. In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP won almost 30 fewer seats in the state than it did in 2019.

In Sultanpur, Jain meets students at a coaching centre who are preparing for government jobs. Garima Verma, 23, has been preparing for the civil services for three years. She is critical of the state’s education system. “Compare primary schools in Bombay and Delhi with our primary schools here. That’s how big the difference is at our basic level,” she says.She wants the government to work on education and employment, but says it isn't responding. “Gen Z asks questions and nobody answers them.”

Muskan Sahu, 21, is a first-time voter. “Look at any exam: UP Police, Lekhpal, NTPC, CGL, whatever you like. Paper leaks are a very big issue,” she says. She links these issues to the student protests in Delhi and criticises the crackdown. “Are we terrorists, that it gets them lathi-charged there?”

In Mohanlalganj, Pratibhas Gautam, 21, tells us his mother earns Rs 10,000 a month doing sweeping and mopping work. On that income, the family cannot afford coaching fees for government job exams. Veer Bahadur, 24, voted for the BJP in 2024. He says there are no private sector jobs in rural areas like Mohanlalganj. He supports the protests in Delhi and other cities, and criticises the illegal detentions of protesters. A change in government, he says, is “absolutely necessary”.

Not everyone agrees. Ram Anuj Dhuriya, 37, is preparing for the UPPCS exam. He has always voted for the BJP and says he will do so again. Nagendra Pratap, a local BJP worker, says the Delhi protests and the SIR have had no impact here. But he adds: “It’ll be a very tough election.”

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