Indian cricket team skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni and the former President, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, may soon be seen on television requesting people across West Bengal to vote “en masse and fearlessly” in the upcoming Assembly elections.
A part of the Election Commission's initiative “Voters' Awareness & Electoral Participation,” the videos aim to raise awareness among voters about the need to exercise their franchise. The videos, however, have not been shot exclusively for the West Bengal elections. They were filmed during Assembly elections in neighbouring Jharkhand and Bihar by their State Election Commissions.
“Both Jharkhand and Bihar have agreed to share the videos with West Bengal for carrying out the awareness drive. With the hype around Indian cricket teams' victory in the World Cup finals, the video featuring Mr. Dhoni is expected to be widely accepted by the electorate,” said Dibyendu Sarkar, the State's Joint Chief Electoral Officer.
Scheduled to be telecast from April 7, Mr. Sarkar said the primary purpose of the videos is to spread the message of maximum voter turnout.
The Election Commission has also roped in former Indian cricket team captain Sourav Ganguly and renowned percussionist Bickram Ghosh to participate in shooting an awareness video.
The choice of Mr. Ganguly as an icon, however, has run into rough weather after the Trinamool Congress lodged a complaint with the Commission raising questions about Mr. Ganguly's neutrality given his alleged affiliation with the Communist Party of India (Marxist). Though the State's Chief Electoral Officer Sunil Gupta said last week that examination of evidence provided by the Trinamool about Mr. Ganguly's alleged political affiliation did not throw up any evidence to prove the charge, the Election Commission decided on Saturday to defer the airing of the video till further orders are issued.
