Ranchi, March 18: If you thought men are more interested in politics than women, you are right.

The Telegraph spoke to youths in the capital who will be exercising their franchise for the first time.

While most girls were reluctant to talk on politics, the men are eagerly looking forward to the prospect of casting their votes.

Amit Kumar Dubey, who is appearing for his intermediate examination, is 18.

He has been issued his voters’ identity card. He is excited over the fact that he can now have a say in forming the government.

“I will vote for the Congress. The party has been around for a long time and is better than others in the fray,” he said.

Excitement is writ large on Rahul Pratap’s face, too. Rahul is also 18. “I will vote for BJP because they are devoted to working for the uplift of the country. The earlier governments talked big but did nothing.”

Asked to elaborate, Rahul said: “Take the example of roads in Jharkhand. Our roads are a lot better than those in Bihar. This was done by the present government,” he said.

Apart from a few exceptions, the girls this correspondent spoke to were not even interested in talking about politics or their voting rights.

Pratibha, an 18-year old student, said:“I have not thought about it yet, though I have got my voters’ identity card. I wonder whether I will get the time to caste my vote. Besides, I don’t know who I should vote for.”

Abhilasha, a student of St Xavier’s College, was not that unconcerned.

“All these politicians are the same — everyone is corrupt. So, there is no point in casting votes. The politicians should first work towards weeding out corruption and then seek votes from us,” she said.

Sweety Soren is also from St Xavier’s College and her father is associated with the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM). “I am not interested in politics, but I will definitely caste my vote. My father is associated with JMM. So, I will vote for JMM.”

While some of the youths are not even aware about the Assembly constituency ward they belong to, others rattled off their ward numbers and even the candidates contesting from there.

While Ravi Shankar, a part-III student promptly answered which ward he belonged to and even named the local MLA there, Anupam, another student, had no clue.

Some youths admitted to have cast votes even before they reached the age of 18.

On being questioned, they revealed that they had cast bogus votes earlier for various parties. Amit, who has been involved in the practice for quite some time, said: “I have been casting fake votes for the last three elections. I just do it for thrills.”