* Chennai's upmarket radio station's campaign encourages youngsters to practice their democratic right to vote

* Well-known Chennaiites like musician Blaaze, politician Karti P Chidambaram, cricketer R Ashwin, actress Priyamani, singer Naresh Iyer and others supporting campaign.

MUMBAI: Chennai Live 104.8 FM, in association with the Office of the Chief Electoral Officer, Tamil Nadu, has come out with a public service initiative to create voter awareness among the people for the forthcoming Tamil Nadu Assembly elections. The campaign, titled Make Your Finger Count, encourages the youngsters of Chennai to practice their democratic rights and to cast their votes.

Chennai Live is planning to reach out to the colleges to join the campaign and encourage voting. On the breakfast show, Live Talk, Ghulam Gilani, Election Officer, Chennai Corporation, gave information about getting voter IDs and answered queries from listeners  Also supporting the campaign are some well-known Chennaiites such as musician Blaaze, politician Karti P. Chidambaram, cricketer R. Ashwin, actress Priyamani, singer Naresh Iyer and many more  Bites from the celebrities are played throughout the day on various shows  The radio station will also be conducting interviews with other officials from Office of the Chief Electoral Officer, Tamil Nadu, to help listeners with the process.

The station will also conduct movie-making and photography competitions for students from various colleges to encourage voting, especially from first-time voters. The campaign is innovatively named, keeping in mind the target audience of youngsters, who, nowadays, are far more informed and genuinely intolerant of insincerity. Chennai Live is hoping that the youngster of Chennai will identify with the Make Your Finger Count campaign.

Thiru Praveen Kumar, I. A. S., Chief Electoral Officer and Secretary to Government, Tamil Nadu, told RadioAndMusic.com, We are happy with the public service initiative to create voter awareness among the people for the forthcoming Tamil Nadu Assembly elections, and extend support for various activities to be carried out by the station....

Geoffrey G. Thomas, Chief Programming Officer, Chennai Live 104.8 FM, told RadioAndMusic.com, Our target audience is youngsters who are very hesitant to practice their democratic right by casting their vote. Many tend to complain  about the system without even voting. Through our campaign, we want to change the attitude and ask them to â€?make their finger count'....