The services of the Department of Posts seem to be one of the popular modes of communication to reach out to a large number of voters this election.
The Election Commission has chosen to send post cards with slogans in Tamil printed on them as part of its voter awareness campaign. According to officials of the postal department, about 10 lakh post cards are set to be delivered across the State this week-end.
“It will be a limited exercise as the Commission wants to motivate people in the localities that registered poor voter turnout in the past,” said an official.
The Commission had also opted to send e-posts last month about the status of the applications to those who wanted inclusion of their names in the electoral rolls.
e-posts
The Post Master General (Chennai region) M. S. Ramanujam said that of the 13 lakh e-posts delivered across the State, nearly five lakh were sent to people in Chennai. E-posts are a substitute to telegrams. The content is e-mailed to the delivery post office, which, in turn, downloads and delivers the copy.
Besides Election Commission, many party cadre and candidates are making use of the services such as e-posts and unaddressed direct posts, he said.
In the past few days, some candidates contesting the Assembly elections either gave pamphlets describing their achievements or manifesto to be delivered to the people of their respective constituencies.
The posts, which would have only the sender's name and not the addressees' details, would be sent to the respective post office and delivered to households in the locality, Mr. Ramanujam said.
Officials of the Chennai City Central Division said that many political party cadre sent e-posts to their party high command with regard to allocation of constituencies to the alliance partners. Nearly 1,000 e-posts were sent from the Division.
Once the final list of the candidates in the city is released, the officials also plan to meet them to use e-post service to reach out to voters about their achievements on the same day. The direct posts, which cost Rs.1.50 per post, is delivered the next day.
