Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar has directed Municipal Commissioners and District Election Officers from select districts to prepare a booth-wise action plan for enhanced voter participation and behaviour change. He also asked them to prepare different strategies for urban and rural areas and plan interventions accordingly for different targeted audiences.
The Chief Election Commissioner, CEC, said this while chairing the Election Commission meeting with Municipal Commissioners and District Election Officers from select districts in New Delhi today. The ‘Conference on Low Voter Turnout’ was held to increase voter turnout in the 2024 Lok Sabha Elections.
The CEC urged the authorities to act in a manner that instils pride among the voters in participating in the democratic festivities. He also called for a movement in which people are self-motivated to vote. Mr Kumar said that 215 Rural and 51 Urban Parliamentary Constituencies with low voter turnout have been identified to reach out to voters in a targeted manner. For this, he emphasized a three-pronged strategy. These are: providing facilitation at polling stations like queue management, targeted outreach and communication and involvement of critical stakeholders, local icons and youth influencers to persuade people to come to polling stations.
The Conference was attended by Municipal Commissioners of Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Pune, Thane, Nagpur, Patna Sahib, Lucknow and Kanpur and select District Election Officers of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. Chief Electoral Officers of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Delhi also attended the conference with CEOs of 7 states namely Karnataka, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Punjab joined virtually.
