The Election Commission is playing a slightly different tune now. After ads with traditional and contemporary Tamil music, the authority turned to a rock band and got them to play at an upscale mall, to lure youth to the polling booth. And it worked wonders on Sunday evening at Phoenix MarketCity in Velachery, where droves of youngsters not only watched the band belt out Bob Dylan and John Lennon hits, but also got them to listen to the EC’s poll pitch.
Aimed at improving the percentage of young voters (18-30 years), a turnout that was said to be less than 40 per cent in the last election, EC has come up with this innovative approach as one of their strategies to catch the attention of the Instagram generation.
“This election will see the most number of first time voters in a while, which is why we have been focusing our attention on them. It is only during the polling that one gets to see the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) so we wanted to familiarise them with the voting machine even before elections. This idea of using a music band has been a very big hit for us as it attracted huge crowd and gave us a platform to convey our message,” said an Election Commission official.
Incidentally, the cover band called BATT, which performed at the mall, is a self-driven initiative by a group of youngsters from various backgrounds who got together for this cause. The five friends did not hesitate when such an offer to perform for this cause came their way.
“We are all from different backgrounds — IT, music, research and advertising. When an official approached us with this idea, we felt we had to do it because just voting is more important than whom you are voting for. This needs to reach every youngster who has to realise that only by voting can we assure a democracy exists,” said Berty Ashley, one of the band members.