"I finish my homework in the evenings and then set out campaigning for the forthcoming elections." Meet Anand Kamath, a 15 year old boy from Bengaluru who has been campaigning for the Lok Paritran party, a party of intellecutuals, which will be fighting the elections in Karnataka for the first time.
Anand, who was born and brought up in Germany, came down to India recently after his family decided to shift here.
He told rediff.com that he found India very different compared to Germany and felt the need to contribute to the betterment of the nation in his own way.
He says that the thing that hit him the most was the rise in prices in India. Each day I felt that the prices were rising and this upset me a lot. When he learnt about the Lok Paritran party, he along with his father joined it, decided to campaign for it and were impressed with the agenda of the party.
Anand says that it was purely a personal decision to campaign for the party. Anand, who studies at the Bangalore International School, says that he has not neglected his studies due to politics. I return home, complete my home work first and then go on a door to door campaign. He says he also dedicates the weekends to campaigning for the party.
So is a 15-year-old boy taken seriously? Anand laughs while saying, "I am sure they do. I have done my home work on the topics that I campaign about and I feel that the people are listening to me. I do have difficulties regarding the language. I speak only English and German and do not know Kannada or Hindi. With the people who can converse in English, I do the talking. Otherwise, I have people in my group to help me out," he also says.
Anand says that issues that touch him the most are price rise and corruption. He bases his campaign on these two subjects and assures voters that the party would make a difference if they are elected.
The youngest campaigner from Karnataka says that he makes it a point to keep his studies and politics separate. At school it is only studies and basketball and I don't discuss politics with them. I prefer it this way, he says. About joining politics, Anand says the first priority would be education and only then would he even think of politics.