Poll fever grips techies in Hyderabad

HYDERABAD: Election fever has touched the city’s techie community as well, which is taking time off from their hectic schedule to participate in various forms for campaigning in the run up to the polls next month. Personal rants on social media aside, many tech professionals have taken up voluntary work in order to "be a part of the change".
Political parties too have realized the importance of tapping this huge vote bank and have been reaching out to IT professionals across the city."The young, educated working class of the city wants to become part of the democratic process. Many of them are unhappy with the way things have been functioning in the country and they are not afraid to become proactive participants, " said Rohit KV, convener of the state IT cell of the BJP.
"A few years ago, these people would have been indifferent to the political scene, but that has drastically changed this time around," he added. The cell currently has around 350 members who are all working professionals. Meanwhile, political parties are trying their best to woo this segment of voters. BJP MLA G Kishan Reddy recently travelled in an MMTS train heading to Hi-Tec City and interacted with many techies.
Vivek Anand of the Hyderabad Entrepreneurs Society, who was approached by a political party to campaign among the tech fraternity, said there is increasing interest among working professionals to participate in the democratic process.
"There is a lot of interest and enthusiasm among the young working class of the city, including non-locals, to participate in the state elections. Several people have filed for migration of their voter IDs from their home towns," Anand said.
A Hyderabad-based online platform, veooz.com, has observed a rapid rise in the expression of political news and views on the web in the past six months.
"A majority of the people who are active on political issues on social media are within the age of 30. While most of the links they post are information based or 'neutrals', there is a significant amount of opinion-based matter as well, indicating the political leanings of the city’s youth," said Prasad Pingali, CEO of SETU Software Systems, which launched the online portal.
Despite the enthusiasm, some say that parties need to make an extra effort to garner the support of the tech community. "It is difficult for people in the IT industry to take time out from their schedules even if they are interested. For this, the parties must take more initiatives in campaigning among the community to tap their support," said Saikat Basu, an entrepreneur who has been in the city for the past six years.