Don’t get surprised, if you receive a call from Cricket legend and ECI National Icon, Sachin Tendulkar, appealing voters to cast their vote during the ongoing Lok Sabha election. As a part of its outreach to enhance the voter turnout, ECI has introduced an array of various interventions, to appeal and motivate voters to cast their vote, during the ongoing elections. Lok Sabha Elections 2024 has seen the voter turnout at polling stations of about 66.95% so far, as approximately 451 million people have voted during the first four phases of ongoing General Elections. 

ECI has enhanced its targeted interventions to reach out to every eligible voter. The Commission led by CEC Shri Rajiv Kumar along with ECs Shri Gyanesh Kumar and Shri Sukhbir Singh Sandhu further directed CEOs of the States going to poll in 5th,6th and 7th phase to timely distribute voter information slips to all electors and enhance outreach activities. 

“Commission strongly believes that partnership and collaboration are essential pillars of voter awareness programme. It’s really heartening to see that on Commission’s request, different institutions, influencers and celebrities having significant reach are working enthusiastically on pro-bono basis,” said Shri Rajiv Kumar, Chief Election Commissioner. Further, he added, a high voter turnout, would be a message from Indian voters to the world, about the strength of Indian Democracy. He urges all the voters to cast their vote in huge numbers, as voting day in not a holiday but a day of pride, by participating in the festival of democracy.

Various voter awareness drives and campaigns being carried out by stakeholders are as follows: 

1.    Telecom Service Providers such as Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd., Bharti Airtel Limited, Jio Telecommunication, Vodafone-Idea Ltd. are reaching out to every mobile user in the respective Parliamentary Constituency through push SMS/ Flash SMSs, Outbound dialling calls to mobile users, RCS (Rich Communication Services) messaging and Whatsapp messages/ alerts. These activities are carried two/ three days prior to poll and even on the poll day, in regional languages, with an appeal to vote.  

2.    Voter awareness during IPL matches: ECI has collaborated with BCCI for voter awareness activities during the ongoing IPL season. The voter awareness messages and songs are being played at different stadiums during the cricket matches. The most innovative aspect of this campaign is the administration of voter’s pledge by cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar, in a pre-recorded video message, at various IPL venues. Further, voter awareness messages are integrated into cricket commentary. Cricketers from 10 IPL teams have encouraged voters to participate in the Lok Sabha Elections 2024 with their recorded voter awareness messages. 

3.    A voting day alert was sent to all Facebook users pan India to inform and aware the voters about the General Elections and to nudge them to participate in the festival of democracy. 

4.    WhatsApp personalised messages have begun on polling day. Google India is contributing through its iconic feature of Google Doodle on Poll Days and banners appearing on YouTube, Google pay and other Google Platforms. 

5.    Retail Association of India has been actively engaging with voter awareness activities, through their retail network, whereby retail chains are encouraged to celebrate election as the festival. 

6.    Vast network of post offices and banking institutions was utilised by ECI to reach out to a wide and diverse audience across the length and breadth of the country. 

a.    Department of Post has over 1.6 lakhs post offices and 1,000 ATMs and 1,000 digital screens 
b.    There are over 1.63 lakh bank branches and 2.2 lakh ATMs across public and private sector banking institutions. 

7.    In collaboration with the Ministry of petroleum and Natural Gas, the Parliamentary Elections campaign logo “Chunav ka Parv, Desh Ka Garv” has been integrated with IRCTC portal and tickets.

8.    Voter awareness announcements have been integrated in the Public Address System at all railway stations. The logo stickers are used in coaches of the superfast trains. 
9.    In collaboration with the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas, hoardings on voter awareness have been installed in about 16,000 retail outlets.

10.    In collaboration with the Ministry of Civil Aviation, airlines are making an inflight announcement with an appeal message to participate in the ensuing elections. Voter guides are being kept in aircraft seat pockets. Apart from this, many airports are providing space for display of voter awareness messages. Selfie-points have been installed at airports in 10 major cities viz. Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Patna, Chandigarh, Pune.
 
11.    Cinema theatres across the country are playing ECI voter awareness films and ECI Song Main Bharat Hoon, Hum Bharat Ke Matdata Hai on regular intervals, as a part of Public Service awareness (PSA) film.

12.    Sansad TV is creating short films on Unique Polling Stations setup in remote corners of the country by the election machinery after navigating difficult terrains to demonstrate the challenges in ensuring voting at the last mile.

13.    AMUL, Mother Dairy and other milk co-operatives have started branding their milk pouches with the message ‘Chunav Ka Parv, Desh ka Garv’ and encouraging voters through social media platforms. AMUL is also encouraging voters with its unique messaging through AMUL Girl Topical advertisement in newspapers. 
 
14.    Prasar Bharati: Doordarshan has produced, various short films including appeal from the Constitutional functionaries like Hon’ble President of India, Vice President of India, Chief Justice of India among others. Further, unique polling stations are being covered by the regional Kendra’s, for its audio-visual documentation. 

15.    Music App Spotify is running a campaign ‘Play Your Part’, and they have issued print advertisements, and curated the playlists for the elections, on their app. 
 
16.    Bike app Rapido has been encouraging voters with a free ride for voting.

17.    Payments app PhonePe has integrated voter awareness message in their app and is actively encouraging voters.

18.    Grocery App Blinkit changed its logo to “Inkit” for the elections, incorporating a message encouraging people to “Go out and Vote” as a tagline.

19.    BookMyShow has launched an integrated campaign, titled “Aaj Picture Nahi, Bigger Picture Dekho,” for raising awareness among voters.

20.    MakeMyTrip is running a campaign titled ‘MyVoteWalaTrip’, whereby discounts are offered, to citizens, going for voting. 

21.    Food delivery platforms such as Zomato and Swiggy are disseminating voter awareness messages through their platforms and social media activities. 

22.    Tata Neu app, serving as the Tata Group’s group-wide consumer-facing mobile app, prominently features the “Cast Your Vote” animated banner on its homepage, with additional initiatives currently underway. 

23.    Uber India is reaching out to voters through multi-channel messaging (in-app, emails, push notifications), offering discounts for rides to polling stations, and amplifying voter awareness messages on social media platforms.

24.    Urban Company has launched ‘I Have Voted Campaign’ to encourage voters.

25.     Truecaller is enhancing its layout by displaying voter awareness message during outbound calls.

26.     Some other independent initiatives are Mankind Pharma #VotingVirgin campaign, clothing brand Neeru’s “Vote ki Taiyaari” TVC, Tinder’s “Every Single Vote Counts” campaign, creatively curated social media post by Matrimonial sites like Jeevansathi.com etc and discounts for voting by popular brands such as Shoppers’ Stop, MakeMyTrip, Chroma and many more brands.