From street plays to slogan-writing competitions to events involving celebrities, the Delhi Election Commission (DEC), keen to mobilise youth and ensure maximum voter turnout, is pulling out all stops ahead of the April 10 balloting in Delhi.Donning its creative hat, the DEC has organized a string of unique events in the national capital, a huge canvas at Dilli Haat, and encouraging people to paint and express themselves while pledging to vote.Similarly, there was a "slogan and tagline competition", in various Delhi University colleges to motivate young voters to cast their ballots, while a candlelight march in many parts of the city was aimed at Delhi's women, who pledged to come out and vote in maximum numbers.
According to Chief Nodal Officer, Delhi Election Commission, Ankur Garg, the initiatives are part of Election Commission's Systematic Voters' Education and Electoral Participation (SVEEP), which focuses on increasing voter awareness and their education as well as improving electoral participation.Launched across the country in 2009, SVEEP has three phases. In the first phase, voters register their names; in the second, the district administration conducts programmes to enlighten people on the importance of voting and in the third, the administration guides voters on polling day."SVEEP has changed the mindset of the voters and specially the youth in the capital. With various programmes and the events organised under SVEEP people have started realizing the importance of their voting," Garg told IANS.
"Earlier, the voting percentage of Delhi's youth was 35 to 40 percent but it rose to 60 percent during the last year's assembly poll. We are hoping that the figure will cross 80 percent this time," said Garg.Inviting celebrities and sports stars has been a time-tested technique to attract maximum eyeballs and the DEC has held many events where the general public got to meet their favourite actors and singers.While actors Soha Ali Khan, Sonakshi Sinha, Saif Ali Khan and Jimmy Shergill urged Delhiites to vote before the assembly election last year, Actors Jacky Bhagnani, Neha Sharma and Comedian Kapil Sharma were seen encouraging the voters this time.
Kapil Sharma has joined two other celebrities, cricketer Virat Kohli and Soha Ali Khan as the Commission's ambassadors."Voters and youth get easily influenced by stars. This is one way of motivating them to vote," Garg added.Meanwhile, popular singers like Sunidhi Chauhan, K.K. and the Nizami Brothers, as well as RJ Raunak of 93.5 Red FM have entertained and enthused voters at many events around Delhi.In addition, a Ho-Ho bus with art and live music on board has been moving around the city urging the people to come out and exercise their franchise.