SHILLONG: Appointing brand ambassadors is quite in vogue now, companies do so to add glamour to their products, organizations to promote their ideas and even state governments sometimes do so to project images of states. One recent instance is West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee appointing film actor Shahrukh Khan the brand ambassador for her state.
Meghalaya has, however, outdid them all and done something quite novel. Prominent singer of Shillong Headingson Ryntathiang has been appointed as the brand ambassador for the Lok Sabha elections 2014 by the Meghalaya Government. The idea is to ensure maximum participation of voters during the Lok Sabha elections.
The singer was formally appointed the brand ambassador on Thursday in Shillong by Chief Secretary PBO Warjri in the presence of Chief Electoral Officer P Naik . The CEO said that his department would record his video in which he would be appealing to people to come out in large numbers and exercise their franchise on April 9 when Meghalaya would go to the polls to elect MPs from the two seats in the State.
The State Government is anxious to increase the voter turnout in this year’s Lok Sabha election. The turnout in the 2009 Lok Sabha election was only 64 percent even though the state has a history of large turnouts in Assembly elections.
No prizes for guessing which party would stand to gain if the polling percentage is high.
