Hyderabad: Telangana ranked second in terms of social media engagement during elections, coming after Jharkhand which stands first in terms of social media presence, said the chief electoral officer, Telangana, on Thursday, January 2. Social Media is actively utilised for Systematic Voter Education and Electoral Participation (SVEEP), which is the activity the Election Commission of India uses for measuring the same.
“With a subscriber base of over 3 lakhs on the CEO-Telangana social media handles, it helps to provide timely and clear communication, ensure elector engagement, seeking feedback, social media is an effective tool in the present-day world,” said the office of the Telangana CEO in a press release. It added that the state achieved a three precent increase in voter turnout in the 2024 Parliament elections compared to the same in 2019 (62.77 percent to 66.3 percent).
The Election Commission of India’s (ECI) media division provides technical support to ensure that social media is effectively used by all states and union territories for information dissemination, transparency and myth-busting among voters, said the Telangana CEO.
ECI’s SVEEP is also used to address various other issues like voter registration, corrections/modifications for the existing electors, marking as persons with disabilities etc., apart from ensuring inclusivity of the marginalised segments like third gender, tribals especially particularly vulnerable tribal groups [PVTG], senior citizens and persons with disabilities (PwD), the release added.
In the 2024 Parliament elections in Telangana, the ruling Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won eight seats each, while the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen retained the Hyderabad Lok Sabha constituency, which it has been winning since 1984. The main opposition Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) drew a blank.
