Icons, social media influencers play pivotal role in enhancing voter turnout

In an era of information technology and ever growing social media impact, the icons and social media influencers have proved to be the biggest assets in the Assembly polls.

The J&K Election Office utilised the social media influencers and several icons as ambassadors as a strategy for voter appeal which is a powerful approach towards increasing the voter engagement and voter turnout.

The voter awareness video appeals by the icons with views in tens of thousands kept multiplying with every passing day, their relatability, familiarity, celebrity influence, cultural and lingual relevance contributed a lot in motivating, educating and empowering the electors to cast their vote and strengthen the democracy. The digital reach of the influencers had a strong presence in social media which increased the digital footprint of election related campaign and SVEEP activities to the tech-savvy young generation.

The role of PWD icons received overwhelming response as they were able to strike an immediate chord with the voters through their motivating and humane voter participation appeals. “Influencers are incredibly instrumental in encouraging the voter participation as it is the easiest and most effective way to reach all the voters through various social media apps,” said Chief Electoral Officer, J&K, Pandurang K Pole.

The Election Commission’s theme, ‘No voter to be left behind’ and the slogans like ‘Your vote, your right’ became the much talked topics about election mantra and resonated on different information dissemination platforms. Apart from their personal initiatives, the icons regularly appeared on radio shows and public events to garner support.

In J&K, around 62 icons at district level and 18 at UT level had been designated for mass awareness of general public. The icons had been designated for all categories like general icon, icons for women, icons for PwD and transgender. They played a great role in increasing voter turnout by promoting their audio/video messages on social media.

Some of the famous icons were Sherlin Seth, Miss India 2017; Javed Ahmad Tak, Padma Shree awardee’ social activist; Parveez Rasool and Umran Malik, international cricketers; Chandeep Sudan, Indian Athlete, 2nd Time’s World Para Taekwondo champion; and Kabul Bukhari, renowned singer and musician.