Civic polls: Candidates miss out on bulk SMSes

Lack of proper database of mobile phone numbers of voters has become a major hurdle for aspirants in Pune in using bulk SMSes to campaign for the civic elections.

While political aspirants in Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) areas have been sending bulk SMSes for the last two months, their counterparts in Pune Municipal Corporation areas have not been able to connect with their voters in that way.
Barring some corporators in Dhankavdi and Katraj areas, most political aspirants in Pune have not been sending bulk SMSes to voters.

A senior member of an online bulk SMS portal told DNA on condition of anonymity that in Pune, the politicians failed to create a proper database to send out the SMSes.

“In PCMC and fringe areas of Pune, many corporators collected an extensive database of voters’ mobile phone numbers, which they are using now to send bulk SMSes,” he explained.

The database was collected by politicians through door-to-door campaigns in their areas and collecting mobile phone numbers.

“They collected the mobile phone numbers by conducting various functions in their locality,” he said.

However, in Pune, politicians failed to carry out the same exercise and failed to get the required database.