With Gen Z zing to rakhi show, can MP minister win over a demographic everyone's wooing?

Gen Z is the reigning flavour, be it trends in politics, fashion or social media. Political parties across the spectrum are going out of the way to befriend this demographic. In BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh, a minister’s annual rakshabandhan event in Bhopal was marked by a twist this year: prominent participation by Generation Z.

The programme organised by Vishvas Sarang, who holds the cooperatives and sports and youth affairs portfolios, saw 189,159 women and girls participating. The count was higher than last year (184, 632) since more members from Gen Z were roped in.

Sarang, 54, is the MLA from Narela since 2008. He has been organising the rakhi celebrations for the past two decades.

Preparations for the mega rakhi event—his annual mass contact programme—begins a month before the festival. A door-to-door campaign is done to register women voters for the ceremony, and they are apprised of the date and venue. The rakhi-tying ceremony is spread over a week to 10 days at various locations in Narela assembly constituency.

This year, the registrations included girls from classes 9 to 12 too, boosting the number of participants. In some households, both mothers and daughters were included.

The event culminated on September 9 and a post-analysis by the organisers found that around 20 per cent of those tying rakhi to the minister were from the Gen Z age bracket. Last year, this demographic had comprised 5 per cent of the minister’s ‘rakhi sisters’.

“My attempt is to encourage Gen Z to participate in social and religious events that would connect them more strongly to their cultural values,” said Sarang about his initiative.

What else is the minister doing to connect with Gen Z? Over the past weeks, he has made a series of announcements in his constituency with Gen Z in mind. Two sports stadia have been announced, more importantly with swimming pools.

Swimming pools are still seen as a higher-income luxury and the plan to build them in Narela, which is dominated by middle- and lower-income groups, has been welcomed. Sarang has also announced two Sandipani schools in Narela. Sandipani schools are government educational set-ups with infrastructure billed as matching those of private schools.