Voter turnout in the first four phases of Lok Sabha Elections 2024 hit 66.95% with around 451 million peeps casting their vote. Don’t be surprised if you get a call from cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar, who’s ECI’s National Icon, urging everyone to vote. The Election Commission of India (ECI) has been pulling out all the stops to get people to the polls, led by CEC Rajiv Kumar and ECs Gyanesh Kumar and Sukhbir Singh Sandhu. They’re pushing state CEOs to get voter info slips out and ramp up outreach. Rajiv Kumar says partnerships and collabs are key to their voter awareness program, and it’s lit to see influencers and celebs hyping voting for free. He’s all about high voter turnout showing the world the strength of Indian democracy, urging everyone to treat voting day like a pride day, not a holiday.
So, ECI’s rolling out mad campaigns: Telecom giants like BSNL, Airtel, Jio, and Vodafone-Idea are blasting SMS, calls, and WhatsApp messages, even on polling day, in local languages. They’ve teamed up with BCCI for voter awareness during IPL matches, with Sachin Tendulkar leading a voter pledge in videos and cricketers from 10 IPL teams dropping voting messages. Facebook sent a voting day alert to users, and Google’s doing its thing with Doodles and banners on YouTube and Google Pay. Retail chains are celebrating elections as a festival, and the vast network of post offices and banks are spreading the word. The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas got the elections logo on IRCTC tickets and voter messages on railway station PA systems and superfast trains.
Airlines are making in-flight announcements to vote and airports in 10 major cities set up selfie points. Cinema theatres are playing ECI voter films, and AMUL’s branding milk pouches with voter messages. Prasar Bharati’s Doordarshan is producing short films featuring appeals from top officials like the President and Vice President of India. Spotify’s running a ‘Play Your Part’ campaign, Rapido’s offering free rides for voters, and PhonePe’s got voter messages in their app. Grocery app Blinkit changed its name to “Inkit” for the elections with a “Go out and Vote” tagline, and BookMyShow’s campaign is called “Aaj Picture Nahi, Bigger Picture Dekho.”
MakeMyTrip’s offering voting trip discounts, Zomato and Swiggy are pushing voter messages, Tata Neu app’s got a “Cast Your Vote” banner, and Uber’s offering ride discounts to polling stations with multi-channel messaging. Urban Company’s running the ‘I Have Voted Campaign’, and Truecaller’s showing voter messages during calls. Other dope initiatives include Mankind Pharma’s #VotingVirgin campaign, Neeru’s “Vote ki Taiyaari” ad, Tinder’s “Every Single Vote Counts” campaign, creative posts by matrimonial sites like Jeevansathi.com, and voting discounts from brands like Shoppers’ Stop, MakeMyTrip, and Chroma.
