Election panel increases scrutiny of parties’ spending on SMS/voice call campaigns

NEW DELHI: The Election Commission of India (ECI) has stepped up scrutiny of SMS and voice call campaigns by political parties, said people with knowledge of the matter. The poll panel is also in discussions with telcos to trace the trail of spending on these campaigns through telemarketers, aggregators and other participants in the value chain as it seeks to ensure that election expenditure limits aren't breached.

Phone companies may need help to obtain all the information that's required. "We are trying to figure out how this could be implemented," said one of the executives involved in the discussions. "The audit trail of all commercial messaging and calls can be tracked up to the last mile, thanks to the blockchain-based system that telecom companies have deployed for enterprise messaging. But for us to seek sensitive financial details of such deals from other participants, an official directive must come from ECI."

The telcos are conducting careful know-your-customer (KYC) verification of those who want to disseminate election-related information or advertisements.


Convenient and Economical
As per ECI directions, bulk SMS or recorded voice messages require prior clearance from the Media Certification and Monitoring Committee (MCMC) of the ECI, as do other avenues such as TV, cinema halls and social media.

Separately, as per telecom regulations, all enterprise communication is pre-checked by telcos by registering the message content or pre-recorded voice templates on the blockchain system.

"Telcos have communicated that while registering the senders of election-related communication, we must seek an authorisation letter from the IT cell of the associated political party," said Tushar Agnihotri, executive vice president, India and Asia-Pacific, at cloud communications firm Route Mobile. "For KYC purposes, there are other hygiene checks as well such as office address, Aadhaar and PAN information, party incorporation documents, etc."

ECI, Reliance Jio, Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel didn't respond to queries.

SMS and voice are convenient and economical, especially for state governments and at the constituency level for candidates since these can disseminate targeted information. Apart from this, aggregators offer lucrative deals to acquire bulk traffic during election season.

The poll panel consolidates the financial details to audit election expenditure statements produced by all contesting candidates and political parties. The ECI has a Rs 70 lakh expenditure limit for Lok Sabha candidates and a Rs 40 lakh cap for assembly contenders. This includes expenses on public meetings, rallies, advertisements, posters, banners, vehicles and advertisements. Any discrepancy or spending beyond the limit can lead to disqualification of the candidate by the ECI for up to three years under current rules.