The Election Commission of India has doubled up its voter participation interventions to overcome the small drop in turnout in the first two phases of Lok Sabha polls.

The turnout so far has been 66.14 per cent in Phase 1 and 66.71 per cent in Phase 2, which is seen against electoral participation history in India.

Read in Hindi: मतदान प्रतिशत को बढ़ाने में जुटा निर्वाचन आयोग

ECI remains committed to taking up all interventions possible to boost voter turnout in the next five phases. A remarkable feature of the Systematic Voters Education and Electoral Participation campaigns has been the pro-bono collaborations by major departments, corporate entities, celebrities, and organisations. The Commission during the last one year has energetically run its flagship programme SVEEP pushing hard all three parts of it: information, motivation, and facilitation, more so in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections. States and districts have taken up a range of local-specific interventions to boost citizen participation under the Turn Out Implementation plan targeting low-turnout constituencies.

In the ongoing Lok Sabha Elections 2024, the Election Commission of India has launched its biggest-ever voter awareness and outreach drive for enhanced participation in the General Elections 2024. As part of these targeted outreach initiatives, various public and private sector organisations have collaborated with the Commission on a pro-bono basis. A judicious mixture of paid advertising, advocacy and partnerships with celebrities has driven this initiative.

ECI’s social media cell has started a social media campaign "I am Election Ambassador". Anyone on social media including content creators, influencers and celebrities can share creative reels and memes to promote the cause. Popular influencers and individual content creators have already joined in with their creatives. Users can share their creatives and content with hashtags #MainBhiElectionAmbassador. Good entries will be featured on ECI's social media platforms.

In collaboration with the BCCI, voter awareness messages and songs are being played at different stadiums during IPL 2024. Standees are displayed, and voter awareness messages are integrated into cricket commentary. Cricketers from the 10 IPL teams encouraged voters to participate in the Lok Sabha Elections 2024 with recorded voter awareness messages, which are being shared on ECI social media platforms. A voter’s pledge by cricket legend and ECI National Icon, Sachin Tendulkar, in a pre-recorded video message, is being administered at various IPL venues.

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

A 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.

In collaboration with the Ministry of Railways, the Parliamentary Elections campaign logo “Chunav ka Parv, Desh Ka Garv” has been integrated with the IRCTC portal and tickets, SVEEP creatives are being displayed at railway stations and railway station announcements are including voter awareness messages. The logo stickers are also used in coaches.

In collaboration with the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, hoardings on voter awareness have been installed in about 16,000 retail petrol pumps.

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 the display of voter awareness messages. Selfie points have been installed at airports in 10 major cities Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Patna, Chandigarh, etc.

Cinema theatres across the country are playing ECI voter awareness films and ECI Song Main Bharat Hoon, Hum Bharat Ke Matdata Hai at regular intervals, as a part of Public Service awareness films.

AMUL and Mother Dairy have started branding their milk pouches with the message ‘Chunav Ka Parv, Desh ka Garv’ and also encouraging voters through social media platforms. AMUL is also encouraging voters with its unique messaging through AMUL Girl Topical advertisements in Newspapers.

Sansad TV is creating short films on Unique Polling Stations set in remote corners of the country by the election machinery after navigating difficult terrain have been produced to demonstrate the challenges in ensuring voting at the last mile.

Telecom Operators such as Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd., Bharti Airtel Limited, Jio Telecommunication, and Vodafone-Idea Ltd. are also contributing to voter awareness activities by sending SMSs through the well-connected mobile network across the country.

Music App Spotify, and bike app Rapido have been onboarded for voter awareness messages across their platforms and channels wherein Spotify has created an “Election Playlist” to motivate voters, and Rapido is encouraging voters with a free ride for voting.

Food delivery platforms such as Zomato and Swiggy have also partnered with ECI to disseminate voter awareness messages in their unique style.

A comprehensive 360-degree multimedia campaign is underway with the theme “Chunav ka Parv, Desh ka Garv.” The campaign includes TV Commercials and celebrity endorsements featuring national icon Sachin Tendulkar, and Rajkummar Rao, as well as actors Ayushmann Khurrana and Vijay Varma, alongside non-celebrity TVCs. Additionally, short films and videos are being produced by DD for social media and its channels.

Major newspapers are publishing advertisements ranging from strip, quarter, half to full-page formats.

Radio jingles, Vox pop programmes, RJ Mention, Celebrity interviews, influencer engagement, and social media messaging are being done on various radio stations’ platforms.

Trendy and explanatory videos are being created by popular social media platforms, in collaboration with the Election Commission of India. The “My Vote My Duty” montage and individual films, along with TVCs, are being shared across social media platforms, featuring national icons.

Train wrapping initiatives are commenced with Indian Railways, with plans for further paid outdoor campaigns.

It is running creative thematic content on various channels of DD and AIR along with L-band branding, mug branding, Chunav ka Parv, Desh ka Garv logo bugs that have been incorporated through shows.

Apart from these, independent initiatives have also been taken by different institutions, such as NDTV has launched the #NDTV18KaVote campaign to make youth aware of the need to vote and encourage voters aged 18 to show their strength in the 18th Lok Sabha election. Further, Dainik Jagran is bringing unique poll stories from the ground. Doordarshan, Akashvani and Sansad TV have also initiated various programmes and informative content for the ongoing General Elections 2024.

Times of India group has launched a campaign called ‘Power of the Print’ calling for entries on voter awareness from creative agencies and designers.

Payments app PhonePe has also integrated voter awareness messages into their app and is actively encouraging voters.

Remember, the Commission is disappointed with the turnout level in some metropolitan cities in phase 2 polls, a pointer to the rigid levels of apathy in India’s high-tech city. Cities in NCR have fared no better. ECI last month assembled many metro Commissioners in Delhi to work out a strategy to fight urban apathy. An exclusive action plan has been taken up. The Commission hopes that urban centres going to polls in the next phases turn the tide.

Following the dip in turnout in Phase 1, the Commission directed state CEOs of Maharashtra, Bihar, UP Rajasthan and Karnataka to come up with an additional set of plans to enhance voter turnout. The Commission also held one-to-one interactions with DEOs of low-turnout districts, based on 2019 figures, in Phases 3 and 4 to identify ways for enhancing turnout.

ECI already held a meeting with top IMD experts, and health and disaster management agencies to consider the impact of heatwave on the election process, especially voters’ turnout during Phase 3. As per the empirical evidence provided by IMD, there is no major concern about the heat wave for Phase 3 of the General Elections scheduled on May, 7.

A comprehensive specific set of advisories is in place to make sure that voters are extended the best possible comfort in hot weather.