‘Wake-Up and Vote’: IIT Guwahati's Campaign to Bring More Voters for LS Elections

As people gear up for the upcoming Lok Sabha Elections, the Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati has taken a step further. Volunteers from IIT Guwahati have taken a pledge to spread awareness about people’s voting rights and for that purpose, IIT Guwahati has organised a campaign to bring in more voters to the polling booth.

The campaign has been called the ‘Wake-Up and Vote’ campaign. It is a part of the yearly fest of the Institute. The Festival is a techno-management festival called the ‘Techniche’, which is also supported by the election authorities of the state.

The primary goal of the campaign is to motivate the citizens of India to vote and to make them aware of their voting right. According to the organisers of the campaign, voting will help the nation to become healthier and stronger as a democracy. The campaign has reached the final phase, also known as ‘in’Guwahati’ of its existence where they are trying to motivate the urban settlers to vote with the help of signature, street plays and selfie campaigns at the malls.

The campaign has been divided into two parts. In the first part, the campaigners use videos and posters of personalities such as Padma Vibhushan Sonal Mansingh, Arjuna Awardee Anju Bobby George and many more to help the spread the importance of voting and how it is good for India’s democracy.

The second part of the campaign is done with the help of social media platforms such as Instagram and Facebook. A total of 700-800 ambassadors of the campus across the country will take part in this move.

Suraj Shelke, the convenor of Techniche 2019 said that the volunteers of Techniche will be holding posters taking a pledge to vote this election and also appealing others to vote as well. He also added that during this they will also be organizing the ‘in-Guwahati’, where they will be visiting crowded places such as malls, and urging people to take part in the election for Lok Sabha this year.

Also Read: To Promote Voter Literacy, Hyderabad University and Election Commission Partner Up

IIT Guwahati launched the campaign on Republic Day this year, at their campus. The campaign saw a huge number of people supporting the campaign by signing a pledge to take part in the Lok Sabha Elections this year. Techniche has always undertaken voluntary activities that have helped the society and its people in one way or the other. However, it has decided to take up the responsibility to bring more voters to the polling booths.

Also Read: New Course M.Tech Data Science Being Offered at IIT Guwahati

Similar campaigns have been held in the past few years as well. For example, a similar campaign was introduced in the previous Lok Sabha election in 2014. Shelke also states that they believe that democracy wins when people decide to take part in the voting process for the elections.