New online voting campaign seeks to create awareness for Lok Sabha polls

With the Lok Sabha election buzz keeping India's youth engaged these days, a new online voting campaign was flagged off in Kolkata on Wednesday, encouraging tech-savvy youngsters to select their favourite personalities in films, music, business, sports and politics.

As the election fever grips the nation, in a season that is expected to see 23 million first-time voters, the "Chuno India ka Bigboss" campaign will see citizens pick and choose their icons in the five fields. The initiative will be on till 16 May 2014 when votes cast in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls will be counted.

"This venture is targeted at the youth as majority of them are active online and this pre-poll campaign will also create awareness about voting," Vinod Gupta, managing director, Dollar Industries Limited, the organisers of the event, told IANS.

One can log on to www.indiakabigboss.com or visit the Dollar Facebook page at www.facebook.com/dollarinternational to cast their votes.

One can also participate by giving a missed call at 09555213567. The ones with maximum nominations in each category will be declared "India Ka Bigboss 2014".

Involving interested citizens offline, a specially-designed mobile car carrying online voting facilities would be flagged off from all major cities to encourage citizens to cast their votes, Gupta said.

"The mobile car would also be equipped with facilities of offline voting. The prime idea of the mobile car is to generate interest about voting in the people who are not Internet savvy," he said.

According to the Election Commission, there has been a remarkable increase in the enrolment of electors in the age group of 18 to 19 years across India.

Electors in the age group of 18 to 19 years now constitute 2.88 percent of the total electors, against 0.75 percent in 2009.