In light of the Bangalore City Corporation’s elections, PAC and Swabhimana cooperated to support the initiatives of the BMP in making Bangalore a cleaner, greener and safer city. The focus of the campaign was to inform the public about the verification of the voters’ list, to appeal to major political parties to field capable, upright and responsive candidates, and to promote the voter motivation and awareness campaign and the Choose the Right Councillor programme.

Partner Resident welfare associations, cable TV networks, Radio City 91 FM, and Brand Comm were partners in the campaign.

About the Campaign

• In the first phase of the campaign, the Centre used various forms of media to educate the citizens of Bangalore on the verification of the voters’ list, and to motivate them to participate. A one-day hotline was set up to receive complaints from citizens, and to forward them to the concerned officers in the BMP for further action. More than 200 organisations in Bangalore were supplied with information kits regarding details about the verification process.

• The second phase of the campaign focused on initiating a dialogue with major political parties to pressure them to select responsive, capable, honest and competent persons as their candidates for the 100 wards of the BMP.

• The third phase covered two broad areas. The first was voters’ education and motivation campaigns, aimed at increasing voter turnout and creating awareness about the need to defeat bogus votes. This was made possible with the help of various forms of media. The other area was an information dissemination campaign on candidates’ antecedents, called the Choose the Right Councillor programme. Contesting candidates were interviewed about their background information and priorities, and this information was widely publicised to the citizens through meetings, leading daily and neighbourhood newspapers, and various publications. 27 resident welfare associations collaborated with PAC and Swabhimana in this effort, covering 18 wards.