Theni gives a cool twist to election awareness campaign

Theni Collector R.V. Shajeevana promotes election awareness with a 25-foot ice sculpture, urging voters with 'My vote my right.'

Theni Collector and District Returning Officer R.V. Shajeevana came out with another novel election awareness campaign on Thursday by enlisting the support of an artist and carving out the slogan ‘My vote my right’ on ice.

This 25-feet long ice sculpture at Theni bus stand not just drew curious glances but also created the much-needed awareness among the voters. M. Elanchezhian, the sculptor, says it was decided to think out of the box and create a lasting impact among the voters. “To achieve this, we decided to work on ice. Ice carving is popular in western countries but here it is an unfamiliar raw material to work on. As we offloaded 1,500 kg of ice at Theni bus stand at 5 a.m., curious bystanders asked whether we were opening a fish stall. At around 7.30 a.m. they were in for asurprise when they saw me with a felling axe carving out the letters. Many passengers who had come to the bus stand came to take selfies,” he says.

A chef and an ace vegetable carving artiste, Mr. Elanchezhian says that after much thought blue ink was used to stain the ice as ink plays a major role in the voting process.

The ice sculpture was done in a partially covered part of the bus stand and till about 1 p.m., the work of art was able to withstand the intense heat.

“This ice selfie point is a one-time campaign,” says Ms. Shajeevana. “The number of people the sculpture attracted was enormous and we hope that this will help the district achieve the 100 percent voting target in this Lok Sabha election,” she added.