By Esha Chaudhuri
With a day away from polls, an initiative in collaboration with the Election Commission of India and Summersalt the band on ‘Vote for Sure’ catches our attention. A song created with lyrics urging the voter base to present themselves in large numbers and make utmost use of the power of the ballot. The song is premised on the ideals of a democratic system, the power of convening and making a collecting choice of their representatives. Vibing with the visuals, beats and its lyrics, Sunday Shillong acquaints its readers with the cheer and optimism of the anthem by engaging with its ideators and creators.
The Collaboration
Speaking with Summersalt the band on the collaboration, they said, “It was the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), Meghalaya, Mr. Frederick R. Kharkongor who entrusted us to come up with a ‘Call Song’ to invite people to participate responsibly in the upcoming election. We have worked with the CEO in the past too, but this one is a labour of joy and we thought it would be best to work along with a few more talented and popular artistes like Meba Ofilia, State Disability icon for elections ‘Light after Dark’ and Garo-based music outfit ‘Nokpante’.”
Sharing the same views, Chief Election Officer, Frederick Kharkongor said, “I had noticed 
Summersalt in 2017, then an upcoming music band whose music combined earthy and folksy tunes with meaningful lyrics seemed perfect as the State’s Election Icon. This year I asked Kit Shangpliang, lead vocalist of the band to organise an assortment of contemporary artists hailing from both Khasi, Jaintia, and Garo Hills regions to perform a pan Meghalaya music video, which aptly captures the essence of ECIs endeavour to urge all citizens to Vote for Sure.”
The song was made after a series of groundwork and research based on public opinion on the 
electoral process after engaging with cynics too on their lack of faith in the electoral process. The band expands “Our song writer and key member of the band, Kit Shangpliang was the content creator for the song and it took a lot of effort on his part to research and understand the crux of the problem when it comes to polls in Meghalaya. The song was written to tackle voters’ apathy and disbelief head-on and focus on pro-participation.”
Kharkongor adds, “We shared the theme with Summersalt and provided the creative inputs with a mandate to make it contemporary and appealing to the younger generation with entertainment value. It is evident that Summersalt has ticked all the right boxes.”
Thematic essence
The song has interesting visuals from the countryside and captures people from different age groups, genders and walks of life hopping on to a bus celebrating their collaborative power of choosing their representatives. With over 81,000 newly enrolled voters, the CEO lays emphasis on the youth. Kharkongor elucidates, “Generally, it is for all eligible citizens and voters of Meghalaya. However, our main target are the young voters who have just turned 18. It is a shout out to them.”
Elaborating on the theme and setting, Summersalt the band answers, “We’ve tried to showcase the involvement of people from different age groups and incorporating the indigenous attires to showcase the local identity vis-à-vis culture and hyper-local colour. As 
far as our target audience is concerned, it is for all but we want to catch the eyeballs of the youth first.”
The length of the song is hinged on an age-old bus that is visible mostly on the outskirts of Shillong, where the lyrics say ‘come hop onto the bus’. “The bus as Indicated is the vehicle of Democracy – all citizens are called to joyfully participate and journey together as they celebrate the festival of democracy on February 27, and get their fingers collectively inked .
It’s a call to all to come, choose, cast and celebrate their franchise.” explains Kharkongor.
Apathy of voters
Often voters are disillusioned by the existing political trends, the candidates contesting and therefore choose not to show up on the day of polls. Kharkongor insists, “Voting is an opportunity that comes only once in 5 years . Your vote counts, it’s your right and your might, it’s your voice and your choice. Of course it’s true that voters’ choice is at times limited by the quality of candidates, 
but we can’t afford to secede from our duties. Voting is our inalienable right, it’s also our bounded duty as citizens.”
The band also comments, “This disillusion is a consequence of mis-performance and poor-performance, but the withdrawal attitude is a result of poor understanding of governance and it is something that the music video ‘Vote for Sure’ is trying to address. We also think that this is the time for the youth to rethink and refresh their understanding because democracy is all about ‘Us’ not ‘Me or I alone’. When the world is 
being impacted too much by individualism and self-belief, such a state of disarray is bound to happen. The other analogy would be, that if as a country we have chosen this vehicle called Democracy, of course, the vehicle could be far from perfect but we stick by it.”
Muscle and money power
Come elections, and there is an extravagant show of money and muscle power that irks many citizens who then wonder if this culture along with distribution of freebies is far from being over. Kharkongor responds, “It’s true that money power remains our biggest challenge yet . This time our Enforcement agencies have made record seizures over 20 times more than 
2018, almost touching 70 crores. Alongside, educational measures on ethical voting are also being undertaken.”
Expanding on the role of community led movements locally going a long way in combating malpractices during polls, Kharkongor says, “I must highlight that community led action in a few localities in Jaintia Hills disallowing candidates and parties from large scale campaigning is the way forward . If the community is vigilant and regulatory 
in practice, money power will be curbed to a large extent. I wholeheartedly support such enlightened community actions and hope that it becomes a mass movement.”
With one-off action driven initiatives, senior citizens were given the opportunity to vote from the comforts 
of their homes and the Mission 300 campaign. “The campaign’s theme is Love your state, ove your voice, love your vote. This is to encourage young people especially in 300 low voter turnout polling stations to turn up in large numbers and have actively engaged with Rangbah Shnongs, Seng Samlas(Youth groups).”
With an overall state voter turnout of 86.9% in 2018, which is lofty in comparison to the other states in the country, Kharkongor hopes that this year, the state will be near 90% .
As we gear ourselves for the D day, and we march on to cast our precious votes we are sure to remember the words, ‘Vote for sure’. Watch the video on https://youtu.be/aHWIz7M_NmQ