Never seen before tech electioneering

No other election campaign in India has seen such active usage of high end technology as this year. Using Twitter, Facebook and Whatsapp for electioneering have become the order of the day for all parties. While Facebook pages are created for all the 21 constituencies of BJP, Twitter account as also been generated to be used by the elite.

Since Odisha has a very number of Facebook users, even APP has using social networking to develop better engagement with voters, said Sonia Singh, a member of AAP Odisha state strategy team.

More so, voice messages and bulk SMSes are being used to inform parties about rallies and meetings. Naveen Pattnaik, chief minister and BJD president are using the mobile services to campaign for voting.

BJP IT team convener Lalatendu Satpathy said that they have extensively used Whatsapp to exchange information with our workers in Junagarh, Paralakhemundi and even in some remote areas. The Congress has started, Khidki, a web interface for party men, while AAP is using SMS services. The best and the most successful among all this is the 3D holograph technology being used by BJP when Narendra Modi appeared in Bhubaneshwar in his 3D outfit. As opposed to 2D technology where attended to campaigns could be heard only over a LED screen, in 3D, the pictures are a mirror image of the person concerned and the people-connect is instant.

The Election Commission (EC) has made ample use of technology for the polls. An election monitoring system has been put in place to process all election related data. Steps have been taken by the commission to create more awareness about the importance of each vote. Webcast of the poll process was also introduced during the current election. An SMS service has also been started to help voters locate their booth. All they have to do is Vote ID number and send an SMS to 923830013. A special website has been built which lists the voters and also provides details of poll preparedness.