Independence Day: What's on the minds of India's youngest eligible voters?

It is a segment that has in the past played a critical role in defining the political course of the country

Politics is rarely a welcome subject in Sharanya Venkataraghavan’s home in Bengaluru. But there was a recent moment when it took centre stage, recalls the 18-year-old at the Symbiosis Law School, Pune.

“Prime Minister Narendra Modi said something religiously charged. My mother reacted by saying she would vote for Rahul Gandhi,” she recounts. “My whole household rose in revolt. They told her, ‘It’s okay to not vote, but don’t vote for Rahul’.”

Venkataraghavan belongs to the generation of India’s youngest voters — those who will cast their ballot for the first time in the 2019 general election. This is a