Patna: Campaigning for Patna University Students' Union election has gone hi-tech with optimum use of social media as election date (February 17) is round the corner.
With a ceiling imposed on expenses by individual candidates, most of them have gone for hi-tech campaign, making full use of Internet and cellphones to reach out to nearly 20,000 voters in different colleges and post-graduate departments. WhatsApp, Facebook and Twitter are being used extensively to reach out to the voters.
Mukesh Dayal, a presidential candidate from Save the Democracy, is campaigning by circulating a video speech. Dayal's supporters have made a video in which he is seen seeking votes from students. "We have prepared a video speech of Mukesh Dayal in both Hindi and English," said Rao Sumant, a member of Save the Democracy. "In the seven-minute speech, Dayal is seen seeking votes from students and talking about why he should be given a chance to contest the Pusu president's post. He is talking about his 10-point agenda for the university, which includes better hostel for students, encroachment-free campus, parking facilities for students and more."
To reach out to voters, Dayal's supporters were busy collecting students' cellphone numbers before sending the video in the evening.
Left-leaning AISA and AISF, too, are reaching out to students in a similar manner.
The Left-leaning organisations have divided Patna University into six zones. They, too, collect cellphone numbers and call them up in the evenings to seek votes.
The student bodies move around various hostels holding daflis (a kind of hand drum) and singing their party's revolutionary songs. AISA and AISF student leaders from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), too, have arrived to campaign for their candidates. Suchitra Dey, an AISA leader from JNU, and Pusu former general secretary Anshu Kumari, campaigned for their party candidates on Monday. After completing her studies at Patna University, Anshu is doing her MA from JNU.
The RSS-backed ABVP, too, has gone for a hi-tech campaign, sending messages to students, asking them to vote for their candidates.
