EC urges telecom operators to boost voter turnout with SMS campaigns
Election Commission of India (ECI) to push telecom operators to send SMSes to voters to encourage them to exercise their franchise in larger numbers in the subsequent phases, said people familiar with the matter.
However, they said, while the ECI wants telecom operators to send about 100 million SMSes daily to voters, the telcos have said they can handle only about 20 million SMSes a day, citing a lack of capacity.
«The Department of Telecommunications (DoT), Election Commission officials and executives from telecom operators have been meeting for the past few days to evolve a consensus on how many promotional messages need to be sent,» said an official, who did not wish to be identified.
The seventh and final phase of polling will be held on June 1, with the counting of votes scheduled for June 4.
«The messages are planned to be sent soon, before the third phase of the polls on May 7,» said another official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity.
ET's queries sent to the Election Commission of India, Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea and the DoT remained unanswered at press time.
The first two phases held on April 19 and April 26 saw about 66% polling, as per ECI data released on Tuesday, which is lower than in the corresponding phases of the 2019 polls. Some experts have attributed the dip to the above-normal temperatures in many states which they said deterred people from coming out to cast their vote.
Though the telcos have been sending sporadic messages on behalf of the ECI, the poll body now
