Just off NCR, India's most backward district will vote to save its truckers

For Lok Sabha elections 2019, unemployment and, surprisingly, new driving licence rules are key issues that could dim the BJP's prospects in Mewat

"There's simply no employment here. All the youth have either left in the hunt for jobs or roam about aimlessly," says Amjad Khan, touching Mewat's raw nerve. A first-time voter and student of Delhi University, 18-year-old Khan now looks to a future away from his village — a hamlet called Asaiseeka in Mewat district.

Falling within Haryana's Gurgaon parliamentary constituency, Mewat has three Assembly seats — Nuh, Punhana and Ferozepur Jhirka. The Manohar Lal Khattar-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in the state renamed the whole district Nuh in 2016. In March 2018, the NITI Aayog ranked Mewat as India's