Jamshedpur bypoll candidate Ajoy Kumar campaigns in Baridih on Thursday. (Bhola Prasad)

Jamshedpur, June 23: Too posh to vote? JVM has hi-tech aid to change your mind.

Former top cop and JVM candidate for the Jamshedpur Lok Sabha bypoll Ajoy Kumar is on a double mission. Like all other candidates who have thrown their hat in the ring, he wants to win. But he says he also wants democracy to win in the city’s posh areas, for which he and his party are setting up a voting-made-easy control room with a helpline number.

“We don’t know why the elite don’t vote. Generally the lower middle class and the middle class do, not the cream of the society. I am personally meeting people to say it is high time they vote for change. This is separate from party campaigning,” Kumar, who rallied at Mango and Sitaramdera today, said.

Number crunchers in the party have found out that voter turnout in upmarket areas was a measly 15-17 per cent of the total population in the last election. Most cited difficulty in reaching the correct voting booth. In this bypoll, JVM wants the elite to drive to the booth on D-Day. For this, the party’s backroom boys — read campaign managers — will set up a control room with specialised software and a helpline number. The control room, to be launched from June 27, will take calls from 9am to 7pm.

“It will be like a mini call centre, where voters can call in for their booth numbers and addresses as well as other assistance. So far, whenever we have met people such as corporate professionals, businessmen, industrialists, among others, they discuss politics, but don’t turn up to vote. We have just one request — exercise your voting right if you want your candidate to win,” said Ravish Ranjan, consultant for Ajoy Kumar.

Don’t just criticise the existing system, go out and vote for change — thus goes the mantra. Party members and the candidate himself are meeting people personally. Helplines, websites and blogs are the new-age campaign tools.

A person just needs to call up the helpline and give his Voter ID number (on top right hand side at the back of the card). At the other end, bypoll information will be generated through the software, in which complete details of all 1,628 polling booths of the Jamshedpur parliamentary constituency and their addresses are fed.

The elite themselves admit that not bothering to vote is a mindset. Nobody considers voting important because they feel it won’t make a difference, said a businessman. “Apart from the reason that the distance between one’s workplace and voting booth is normally long, most people think voting doesn’t make a difference. But it actually does,” said businessmen Bharat Vasani.