Pankaj Tripathi gets honoured as ‘national icon’ of election commission of India

Mirzapur actor Pankaj Tripathi has been named the “National Icon” of the election commission of India. At an event organized on October 4, 2022, the award-winning actor was made a “national icon” on the basis of his association with ECI in creating awareness among voters.

The announcement was made by Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar. Further CEC and Election Commissioner Anup Chandra Pandey on October 4 launched a voter awareness radio series in collaboration with All India Radios. 52 episodes, each 15 minutes long will be broadcast on Vividh Bharati stations every Friday. The first episode of “Metadata Junction” will be aired on October 7, 2022.

ECI launches Radio series - #MatdataJunction in collaboration with @AkashvaniAIR for voter awareness.

Actor & State Icon Shri @TripathiiPankaj declared ECI’s National Icon.https://t.co/TrkhdS5uaZ https://t.co/LWN9iwGeuo pic.twitter.com/pwWvkxHrKG

— Election Commission of India #SVEEP (@ECISVEEP) October 3, 2022

Matdata Junction Program: Significance

1. The program would be a strong platform to connect with voters across the country.
2. The program would connect with the audience to share information and entertainment.
3. The connectivity developed by the program would help address urban apathy and inform the audience about the election processes.
4. It would let the people know about free, transparent, accessible, inducement-free, and inclusive elections in an interactive communication format.

Matdata Junction Program: Schedule

1. The program will broadcast on the All India Radio network covering 25FM stations, 42 Vividh Bharati stations, 4FM Gold stations, and 159 primary channels.
2. It will be broadcast in 23 languages including Kashmiri, Oriya, Sidhi, Urdu, Maithili, and much more.
3. The episodes will cover different aspects of the election and related processes from the voter’s perspective.
4. The episodes will be dedicated to the value of the vote, model code of conduct, EVMs, informed and ethical voting, stories of election officials, inclusive and accessible elections, etc.
5. The program will include interactive episodes to encourage eligible citizens, especially young or first-time voters to vote.
6. The series will be focused on infotainment including drama, quizzes, storytelling, expert interview, and songs produced by the systemic voters’ education and electoral participation section of the Election Commission of India in every episode.
7. The program will also include a Citizen’s corner through which citizen can ask their questions or provide suggestions.
8. The audience can share suggestions for making the elections more participative and inclusive. 

Pankaj Tripathi: National Icon of ECI

The actor Pankaj Tripathi is a National Award winner. He is the Bollywood industry for 18 years. The actor made his debut with Abhishek Bachchan's starer movie “Run”. Pankaj Tripathi made his mark on Bollywood through various hits movies and web series. Some of his famous works include Fukrey, Bareilly ki Barfi, Masan, Ludo, Mimi, Mirzapur, Sacred Games, etc. Pankaj Tripathi has been announced as National Icon to encourage voters and increase the voting percentage in India. ECI significantly choose an icon to create voting awareness among the citizens.