In the wake of the Lok Sabha elections, 2009, Parivartan aimed at reaching out to people and encourage people to vote. Keeping this in mind, Parivartan organized ‘I Vote campaign’ between April 12 and April 23. The scheme of this campaign was to spread awareness about voting, to provide information about all the eligible candidates of the elections and also about Rule 49-0 of the Conduct of Elections Rules 1961(i.e. a voter registering his vote as “I reject to vote for any candidate”).
This campaign was held on the evenings of these days in various parts of the city. The areas covered included Deccan, Fergusson College Road, Good Luck Chowk, Jangli Maharaj Road, Parihar Chowk, Bremen Chowk (Aundh), Santosh Hall Chowk (Sinhagad Road), Karishma Chowk, Mehendale Garage chowk (Kothrud), Karve Road, Nalstop, Appa Balvant Chowk, Shanipar Chowk, Bajirao Road.
This campaign was mainly done at signals where our members shouted slogans asking people to vote. They were also holding placards displaying slogans like ‘I Vote, We Vote, Lets Vote’, ‘Stop Blaming’, ‘Start Voting’, ‘Before pointing the finger put a dot on it’, ‘Change the Situation, Vote for the Nation’, ‘Koi bhi desh perfect nahin hota use perfect banana padta hai!’. In the mornings of the campaign days the citizens were addressed by Parivartan volunteers in various Parks, gardens and Tekdis. Saras baug, Sambhaji baug, Tathawde Udyan(Karvenagar), Dr. Shyamaprasad Mukherji Udyan(Erandawne), Maharanapratap baug, Vartak park( Shaniwar peth), Chittaranjan Vatika(Model colony) these parks were covered during campaign. The volunteers distributed flyers and urged people to vote at Law College/ARAI/Vetal Tekdi, Hanuman tekdi and Parvati. Also, on Sunday 19th April, Parivartan did the campaign at Sinhagad.
Parivartan, along with Youth2Youth and various other organizations of Pune, organized as well as participated in a rally, “Let’s Vote”, which took place on Saturday, April 18. This rally began from Fergusson College Road and going round Jangli Maharaj Road ended on Fergusson College Road again. It was organized to promote voting awareness and was a great success. About 125 people enthusiastically participated in this rally.
On April 23rd, i.e. on the day of the elections, the members of Parivartan were working at various Polling Booths helping people find their names in the lists or solving various other problems that people encountered on this day. Some of them were moving around the city urging citizens to vote. Especially at Movie theatres like E-Square, City Pride and hot spots like Vaishali, McDonald’s!
Parivartan has decided to have I VOTE Campaign again in November for Legislative assembly Elections on a larger scale...!!!
