I voted for India – #voteforIndia

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Rahul changed his WeChat status to “Voted today, feeling proud! Have you?” He changed his profile pic with an image of his finger with the ink – a specialty dye that will take some time to go off.

Its been a nice day, and it was a nice feeling to be a part of nation building, he knew he has done his duty in right earnest, but there still remains miles to go for our nation as a whole – he thought.

A few minutes later his friends also buzzed on WeChat with updates and statuses.

A look at some of them and Rahul was feeling happy.

“A long line of people to vote” , “Another 10 min to Polling station”, “The candidate looks pretty”, and one more caught his eye – “The President is voting in my booth, and he is waiting for his turn”

How nice Rahul thought, and as he sat on his veranda overlooking the study, he could hear the television anchors going berserk on the voting and long queues at all the polling stations their reporters are visiting.

The last few days have been very incidental for Rahul and his friends or rather the people of his age. They have been vowed, courted and prayed for their support. There has been FB Page invites, Twitter pushes, Voice recording messages on phone and apps. Infact one party had an app to help him register his voter id, get his name located and showed up the way to his voting booth.

It also urged the users to disseminate information as much as possible. There was a referral program to get the friends their voting rights and the card whichever would help people vote.

The app was also a ready reckoner in a sense giving the details of the candidate, with his past history in terms of governance, and any criminal record would show in big icons. It was a big help they could get the candidate’s details especially when you get into a constituency.

There was also a lot of voice messages on WeChat from candidates and they were also offering themselves to be on a Q&A everyday in the evening.

The best was the message from the Election Commission to vote fair and free on the day of voting. It has been one of the best of the democracy at work. A new paradigm has been created in reaching out to the new voters online. Absolutely the social media has been at play.

Rahul was happy that he was a part of such a historic exercise and the generations to come will for sure have this election scripted in the history for the simple reason that social media and the internet made an impact for the better.

As the day wound, the statuses had become a unitary one “I voted!” It was not an individual’s vote but a #voteforIndia!