‘Country is doing well’: Why jobless young Indians are still backing Modi

Polling shows inflation and a lack of jobs worry most young Indians. It also shows that support for Modi stays intact.

Patna, Bihar – Sanjeev Kumar is 27 and jobless – a desperate situation compounded by his car salesman father’s imminent retirement in a few years.

The business studies graduate from Patna, the capital of the eastern Indian state of Bihar, voted for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 2019, hoping to land one of the millions of new jobs promised by the country’s governing party and its leader.

Kumar took two exams for jobs in so-called Group D positions in the Indian Railways. This job category is the lowest in the hierarchy of public sector employment in India, yet it comes with benefits and job security, both of which are attractive.

He did not pass either test and complains that far fewer jobs are advertised as up for grabs than the number actually available.

“Things are getting a little difficult now. My father will retire soon and there’s pressure on me to get a job. We are a middle-class family,” Kumar told Al Jazeera.

But none of that, Kumar added, will deter him from voting for Modi again in the ongoing Indian national election. Bihar, India’s third-most populous state with more than 100 million people, votes across the seven phases of the mammoth electoral process – the next phase is on May 7.

“We are not getting jobs, that’s true. But at least the country is doing well,” Kumar told Al Jazeera.

Kumar’s political choice underscores a broader pattern that, on its surface can appear contradictory but that analysts say is critical to Modi’s success: The prime minister’s cult-like popularity appears untouched by many voters’ dissatisfaction over their economic situation.

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