In order to reach maximum number of people within a short time, political candidates are leaving no stones unturned in this Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) elections. When it comes to reaching out to voters and increase their chances of winning the Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) elections, political candidates are obtaining Aadhaar-linked voter ID data to target people in their constituencies. As the election campaigning is coming to an end soon, political candidates are accessing services of agents and political consultants to obtain updated voter database which contains list of names, addresses and contact numbers living in their Prabhag. Sources in the political field told that this data is very important for candidates as they can target the voters in their constituencies and send messages, SMS, voice mails, Whatsapp videos and share campaign details directly with them.

 

This strategy was adopted in a big way during the 2014 Lok Sabha and Assembly elections. The process of obtaining the data and making payment to these agents is in secrecy and totally online. Sources provided the rates of different types of packages or credits that is available like - 1 lakh SMS at Rs 6,000, 1 lakh Whatsapp messages at Rs 7,000 and 1 lakh voice calls at Rs 10,000. On an average, a candidate spends about Rs 25,000 to Rs 30,000 in their Prabhag. The rates can fluctuate according to the accuracy of the data.

 

One of the political consultants having knowledge of these activities, Akshay Gandhi, said that there are several large companies and agencies based in New Delhi and Noida that have possession of pan India database and sell it for a hefty fee. Apart from this, companies also obtain this kind of data for their marketing campaigns. “One cannot directly get Aadhaar-based address data for campaigning from UIDAI official sources, as the database is secure and private. However, political candidates have reportedly used linked voter ID and Aadhaar data for targeted campaigns, often without consent, by sorting data, raising privacy concerns and calling for better data protection laws,” another source said.