Having elections in colleges and schools is something that has been a tradition for a long time. But initially, campaigning was not permitted. The norm was that a suitable candidate is selected and elected. Blatant campaigning wasn’t very common at the university level. But, times have changed. Schools and colleges are now encouraging candidates to reach out to the masses and let them understand who the candidate really is. Millennials are indeed making sure that every vote counts. Apart from traditional banners and posters, technology is largely used too.
Sailesh Singhal stood for the post of the general secretary and president during his college days. He adds, “Ours was more of a social campaign, where people were brought together rather than force someone to vote for a particular candidate. While campaigning for the president's post, I had huge banners, slogans and posters which were pasted across the college. Apart from this, meetings with about 10 or 15 people over a period of time were conducted. Discussions were done over voice notes on WhatsApp. I also did video messaging throughout the campaigning. This was the first time, that audio notes, whatsapp and video messages were used during campaigning.”
Nithin
Arun S Kumar is part of the campaigning team for his friend Nithin, who is taking it a step forward by having a band perform. He says , “Although the process has not yet started, we have planned a number of things. We have formed groups where we will be sending the poster and slogans to the different departments in the college. We will be targeting the various class representatives and community heads. We will also be rallying for two days where we will be going to different classes and there will also be a band playing.”
Nydile Ranganath says, “I have stood for the elections twice in college. One for the post of the treasurer and the other as a president. We were permitted to campaign for five days before polling. On those five days, I went to various classes where the students were allowed to cross question. I was able to do rallies. I was backed by a number of students and we went around the college shouting slogans and handing out pamphlets, posters etc. I had banners and poster around the college.”
Aryaman Dev Harlalka went all out and had life size posters of himself placed in school during his elections. He adds, “During the election time, I gave out stickers to get people to vote. A lot of people put up poster across the school. I printed out a huge life-sized posters that were put up in school. We were first required to give a speech to individual house out of which six people were chosen. Once that was done, I gave a speech in front of the entire school.”
