Poll money is certainly welcome for them. It is learning cum working experience in the lok Sabha elections as they are making good use of their talents.
Computer savvy students have readily come to the assistance of different political parties as many of their regular office staff may be versatile in political matters but are computer illiterates and are unable to match with the present hi-tech campaigning trends.
A number of students who are taking coaching classes are engaged in doing a part time job for political outfits. “It is an interesting break for us while we are earning anywhere between Rs10,000 to Rs30,000 per month. By doing this we are trying to make up for the money being spent by our parents for our coaching and studies,” explained a student.
These elections have given an opportunity to the computer savvies to earn their pocket money while they help the politicians. “Most of the candidates are not computer savvy and even their staff is computer illiterate. We work for them two hours in the evening, typing and emailing their Press statements, sending letters to the Election Commission, uploading photographs on their sites and even tweeting for them and answering queries on the social networking sites,” said Vipul Gupta.
Moreover, Vipul, who is taking coaching classes in engineering is working for two candidates in lucknow. He admits that he is paid extra money for informing candidates about what their rivals are doing to woo voters.
Some of the students are even engaged in networking for candidates in the rural interiors of Uttar Pradesh. “I am working for three candidates in Sultanpur, Gonda and Sitapur without stepping out of my house. They fax me their press statements and I type them out in Hindi and English and them mail them to the addresses provided by them. I also help them draft letters that are sent to the election officials. In these two months, I will be earning over Rs1 lakh and I plan to take my parents and sister on a holiday to Kashmir in June with this money,” says Karishma Singh, an under-graduate.
Apart from individual candidates, even smaller parties are hiring students for computer related jobs during elections.
For instance, a small caste based outfit has hired a student and has got a data base prepared about the number of persons belonging to one particular caste in every constituency.
“I have been working with this outfit since February and we have prepared the data base and this also forms the basis of the campaign. In fact, this presentation has helped the outfit strike an alliance with a national party recently,” says Deep Chandra, another engineering aspirant.
Students working during elections for extra pocket money are happy that the work does not impact their studies.
“In any case, we take a break every day from books and this time is put to good use during elections,” says Vipul Gupta.