Rajkummar Rao Appointed National Icon By EC Ahead Of Polls To Encourage Voters

Actor Rajkummar Rao has been appointed as the National Icon by the Election Commission of India ahead of the polls to encourage voters.

Actor Rajkummar Rao has been appointed as the National Icon by the Election Commission of India ahead of the polls to encourage voters.

Source : ANI

The Election Commission of India on Thursday appointed actor Rajkummar Rao as its National Icon. The actor signed an MOU with the poll body to promote voter education and turnout.

Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar and Election Commissioners Anup Chandra Pandey and Arun Goel exchanged a memorandum of understanding with Rao, recognising him as the poll body's national icon.

Hailed for his performance in the film 'Newton', Rao essayed the role of a principled government clerk with a staunch resolve to conduct a free-and-fair election in the Naxal-affected areas of Chhattisgarh, overcoming the hurdles of a security officer. 

The movie won the National Award for Best Feature Film in Hindi and was also nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film category at the 90th Academy Awards, popularly known as Oscars.

His appointment as the national icon is expected to spread awareness about the elections, encourage people to vote and increase the turnout in the upcoming elections.

The poll body appoints prominent Indians as national icons to motivate voters to participate in elections.

Earlier this year, the poll body signed a Memorandum of Understanding with cricketing icon Sachin Tendulkar for three years. During the three-year agreement, Tendulkar would be engaged to increase voter awareness. His participation is intended to tackle the challenges posed by urban and youth disinterest in the electoral process. In the past, the poll body had also appointed actor Pankaj Tripathi as its national icon.

Over 161 million people in the five states of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Mizoram and Telangana will vote in assembly elections next month, the Election Commission of India announced earlier this month. As per the announcement, polling will begin on November 7 and will conclude on November 30  while the results will be declared on December 3. 

The voting will take place in a single phase in MP, Rajasthan, Telangana and Mizoram and two phases in Chhattisgarh.