The record 72.52 per cent voting in the State could be largely attributed to sustained efforts of Election Commission of India and collective initiatives by civil society groups and social positive intervention of social media according to election experts.
It is noticeable that the Election Commission of India launched its Systematic Voters’ Education and Electoral Participation programme joined by a number of bodies working for strengthening democracy, social groups, intellectuals and especially social media.
The first time voters are using various means and products of social media mainly internet, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, email and WhatsApp. Besides, mobile applications specially designed text SMS and voice SMS also worked well. Before advent of social media and widespread use of internet, the polling percent before 1990 never reached 55 per cent.
The district returning officers also participated in the SVEEP programme by opening their accounts on Facebook. The media partner of Election Commission and an evangelist of social media mppost.com actively participated in encouraging electoral participation. The voters’ education stall put up by the mppost.com was visited by a number of people from different sections of society. Children accompanying their parents evinced interest in election process.
Senior administrative officers including Collector Bhopal Nishant Varvade, journalist students, law graduates and first time voters visited the stall and were informed about importance of voting. The mppost.com also launched 230 websites mppostelectionwatch.com for each constituency and user-friendly mobile application on election related data and issues. Besides, text SMS and voice SMS motivating mobile users to exercise their voting right were also disseminated.