The EC is now planning to use celebrities to create awareness among the voters towards their right to franchise for the 2012 Assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh. “We are on a look out for celebrities from Uttar Pradesh in the field of sports, film, media or culture to issue appeals and messages to voters and mobilise more and more people to exercise their franchise,” chief electoral officer of UP, Umesh Sinha, told reporters.
These celebrities will be utilised specially for creating awareness among the rural electorate or the newly-enrolled and if required, they could be asked to conduct programmes in the rural areas.
According to Mr Sinha, the celebrities who will be picked up for this campaign will be totally non-political as this exercise has to be kept away from politics.
He said that voters will be made aware of the importance of their votes and how they should keep themselves free from all pressures while casting their ballot.