‘Kaleen Bhaiya’ to help EC raise awareness among voters

In Amit V Masurkar’s political satire, Newton, Aatma Singh, the overbearing assistant commandant of a paramilitary force, tries to dissuade a sincere presiding officer, Nutan Kumar, from strictly following the rule books while conducting polling in a hotbed of ultra-leftist insurgency. Akhandanand Tripathi a.k.a. Kaleen Bhaiya, the calm-but-feared mafia don in Karan Angshuman’s crime thriller web series Mirzapur, helps the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh win polls with his money and muscle powers.

Yes, some of the screen characters, which earned Pankaj Tripathi laurels, do not have an easy relation with the democratic process of elections. But, in real life, the award-winning actor will now raise awareness among voters across the country to take part in the democratic process.

Tripathi, himself, was present when the Chief Election Commissioner Rajeev Kumar announced him as the national icon of the Election Commission of India at an event in New Delhi on Monday.

He recalled his own experience of casting his vote for the first time. He said that the process gave him not only the right of ‘Matdan’ (or voting), but also ‘Samman’ (honour) as a contributory voice in democracy. While appreciating the efforts made by ECI for reaching out to the voters, he urged all young electors to pro-actively participate in the elections to reflect their democratic choices and make their voices heard.

Tripathi was already the EC’s icon for the state of Bihar. Kumar said that the EC decided to make him its national icon in view of his commitment to the cause and wide appeal across the country.

Kumar and Election Commissioner Anup Chandra Pandey on Monday launched a year-long Voter Awareness Program, ‘Matdata Junction’, a 52-episode radio series produced by the ECI, in collaboration with All India Radio. Kumar said that the program ‘Matdata Junction’, produced in collaboration with All India Radio, would be a strong platform to connect with the voters across the country. The program, as a combination of information and entertainment, would specifically help address urban apathy and inform the audience about the election processes in the conduct of free, fair, transparent, inducement free, accessible and inclusive elections in an interactive communication format.

Sheyphali Sharan, Director General (Media) of the EC, gave a detailed overview about the “Matdata Junction: Har voter ka apna station”. She pointed out that the ECI and the AIR, the two iconic institutions, known for their credibility and grassroot connect, had got into an apt collaboration to ensure extensive outreach.

The 15 minutes program would be broadcast every Friday during 7-9 pm slot on All India Radio network covering 25 FM stations, 4 FM Gold stations, 42 Vividh Bharati stations, and 159 primary channels or local radio stations in 23 languages, Assamese, Bengali, English, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Nepali, Oriya, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu, Bodo, Santhali, Maithili, and Dogri.

The first episode of the program on the theme - ‘Voter Registration’ - will be broadcast on October 7, Friday at 7:25 p.m..