Why Gen V Matters

The Way The 210 Million-Strong Generation Viksit Bharat Casts Its Vote Will Determine The Outcome Of This Election As It Has In The Past

- KAUSHIK DEKA, Amitabh Srivastava and Dhaval S. Kulkarni

ON APRIL 11, JUST EIGHT DAYS BEFORE INDIANS GO TO VOTE in the first phase of the 2024 general election, social media was populated with a video of Prime Minister Narendra Modi interacting with seven top gaming influencers of the country. Recorded in March at his official residence, the video showed the prime minister engaging with the young gamers, whose average age was 25, even telling them how he could use some of their “gaming lingo” in his speeches. On another occasion, on March 7, during the presentation of the newly created National Creators Award for online content creators, Modi traded some friendly banter with some of the country’s biggest social media influencers—Ranveer Allahbadia, Shraddha Jain and Kamiya Jani. Allahbadia and Jani, in fact, have also streamed interviews of Union ministers S. Jaishankar, Nitin Gadkari and Smriti Irani, among others, in recent months on their respective online platforms.

Why the Youth Vote Matters